A New Smile

Well, they took out his tooth.

I took Zeke to the pediatric dentist on post this morning to have his tooth x-rayed and taken care of. Part of me had really hoped that it would be possible to save the tooth, but I saw the x-ray. Like the dentist said, by the time they took out all the stuff they would need to take out for the root canal, he'd have very little tooth left, which could then easily fracture and cause more problems down the road.

So they took out his tooth.

I'm not going to lie, it was pretty traumatic. First they tried to give him a little gas just so he'd lie still and not feel anything, but he freaked out when they put the little thing over his nose and just refused to calm down and breathe properly for them. It didn't help that I had to leave the room while the gas was on, on account of being pregnant and all. They left the door open and I could stand right outside the door and talk to him and all, but it wasn't really enough. I'm so thankful the dentist is so patient. He just sat there, holding Zeke's hands, trying to get him to calm down so he would breathe through his nose, but to avail.

So we decided that the best/quickest course of action would be to just numb up the area and pull, with me in the room, holding his hands/holding him down. The whole process only took all of 5 minutes, but they were some of the longest 5 minutes of either of our lives. My poor baby just screamed, not because it hurt (although the shot looked like it might have hurt a little), but because he was done and didn't like being held down like that. It must be so hard having something like that being done and not understanding it at all. But once the area was numb, the dentist loosened the gums a little and pulled it right out. Apparently it was already loose, so there wasn't much he had to do to work it out.

I think the worst part for me was watching my baby cry like that, knowing there was nothing I could do until it was over. Then seeing this giant hole in his mouth, with all this blood coming out - it was really all I could do to not cry myself. I never want to go through that again. I'm sure Zeke doesn't either. Once it was all over though, he was fine. He keeps sticking his tongue in the hole, but he seems like he could care less. The dentist let us keep the tooth too, so we can show Daddy when he gets home from work tonight. Score! (I was going to post a picture of the tooth too, but it's in a baggie with some bleach and I just couldn't get a good shot of it. Maybe I'll keep trying.)

But now their rest time is almost over, so I had better end here and find something soft for Zeke to snack on when he gets up. Now we just have to get used to seeing that hole. After all, it's going to be around for the next 3 years or so.

I still can't believe they took out his tooth.