It's taken me nearly a week to recover from *my* trauma enough to finally post about it.
On Sunday evening, right after dinner, I got Olivia out of her high chair and was right behind her when she fell. It happened so quickly that I didn't have time to reach out and catch her (oh, the guilt!) and she didn't have time to try to catch herself with her hands. Face met ceramic tile. There was the telltale moment of silence where you know that either they're totally fine or screaming is about to ensue in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Ah yes, there it is.
I picked her up and she was holding her mouth. When she moved her hand, I saw the blood. A lot of it. At that point, I was doing a decent job of remaining calm when I noticed something white on her lip. A piece of her tooth. Her front tooth.
Hello freakout.
The pediatric dentist she saw once for her checkup was out of town for a week, so I called their emergency backup dentist from a different practice. I think the call went something like:
surly: Hi, Dr. Phillips. My daughter is a patient of Dr. Carol's, but she's out of town. A few minutes ago she ... she [voice shaking] fell ... on the tile [embarrasing crying begins]
dentist: Oh, please don't cry! It's ok. Can you tell me what happened?
surly: [crying worse from hearing sympathetic voice on phone] Her tooth! [deep breath to attempt to compose self]
I believe I said something about being pregnant/hormonal/crazy and told her I was going to put my husband on the phone. Look up "calm under pressure" in an encyclopedia and you'll see my photo, folks.
Long story short, we took her in the next day. X-rays showed that the roots seem to be fine, but she has a 2nd-degree fracture of one front tooth, exposing the pulp, and chipped the enamel off the other front tooth. We go back in 6 weeks to have her rechecked and discuss possible restoration of the tooth so she doesn't get cavities. I just assumed they'd pull a baby tooth, but apparently they like them to stay in as long as possible to serve as a placeholder for the adult teeth.
She's a trooper and really hasn't complained at all about it, other than when she whacked her face with her baby doll and caused the bleeding to start up again right after we'd gotten it under control the first time. I haven't been able to get a pic of the snaggletooth yet, but will of course keep trying.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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3 comments:
I'm sorry to hear about your little one. I'm reading your story because I, too, had a similar story about my 3 year old daughter. About a week ago, she was leaning on a chair while I was cooking breakfast. I heard a smack and her face met the kitchen floor. Same scenario - I waited - she cried with a mouth full of blood. I looked and panicked. Her story is different in that none of her teeth were broken, but her gums were bleeding pretty badly. I did not call the dentist or doctor. I stopped the bleeding with pressure, an ice pack, and gave her some Tylenol. Fast forward to now - her two front teeth are significantly darker than all her other teeth. I am sick to my stomach for not taking her to the dentist sooner, but we are going in on Thursday. Can you shed any light on what I might be faced with? Thank you, in advance, for any help you can provide.
Hi Alicia -- I'm sorry you've been through similar trauma with your daughter! :(
I'm not an expert in pediatric dentistry or anything, but I'm guessing they'll do x-rays to see how the interior structures of her teeth and the roots look.
We were told that any darkening/discoloration of the teeth was probably an indicator of root damage. Our dentist said that they would do a root canal-type procedure instead of just pulling the teeth so that the adult teeth have a better path to descend from and the other teeth don't move around, but I do know some dentists will just recommend extraction depending on the age of the child.
I hope her appointment goes well and that it's not too traumatic for either of you! Keep me posted!
Surly, that was a very unfortunate incident. I definitely understand the trauma that you and your daughter have experienced.
Back then, we also had the same problem with our adorable 3 year old daughter, Beth. We were just watching television when suddenly, she fell from her chair. Face down, straight on the floor! We didn't know what to do. My wife was panicking already. And I was too surprised to talk.
Sane minds took over, and we took her to the nearest clinic to be checked right away by the (Hilton Head) dentists. Fortunately, the (Hilton Head) dentist declared that the damage was not severe. No root canal was damaged. But our baby lost her tooth in the accident.
I really hope that everything will go well for you and your baby. Good luck!
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