Dental Appointment

Last week Rachel saw her dentist for cleaning and a check up. Xrays showed a couple cavities in between her teeth as a result of not flossing. We also talked about the Xray and 'growing pains' we briefly saw her for in November. She recently had lunch with the orthodontist she had consulted with and with a print out of the Xray they had taken, they labeled all Rachel's teeth. Based on the Xray, and the teeth buds they already see forming, they are thinking that Rachel might have two extra teeth, including her one tooth we've labeled her funky tooth. Their thoughts are that perhaps these two teeth will just be removed when Rachel has her bone graft in a couple years. Interesting to say the least!

This afternoon, immediately following school, we headed back to the dentist to have those cavities taken care of. The dentist was going to try to see if could knock them out in one visit. But she ran into a bit of a problem...

One of the cavities was so close to the nerve of the tooth, that she had to do a root canal and put a crown on the tooth. They call the silver crown a "Princess Hat" for her tooth. After talking with our dentist, I learned that root canals and crowns on baby teeth are way more common than not, as the nerves in baby teeth are pretty big, and the enamel of their teeth is pretty thin. It's very common to have to do this on kids.

So, we didn't get all her dental work done in one visit. Our Dentist felt it was best to give Rachel a rest and come back in a couple of weeks. Rachel was already getting a little upset and she felt if she kept going, it would just make the situation worse.

By the time we stopped for Golden Spoon on the way home, she was good, no tears, nothing. Which is good. She has so much ahead of her when it comes to her mouth - more surgeries, braces, tons of orthodontic work, that we're hoping she never becomes terrified of the dentis.