As my parents will tell you, my teeth required a lot of work to give me the smile I have today. I was crossing my fingers the kids would get Brian's genes for having space for all the teeth and that the teeth would come in straight. Julia starting her braces so early because of her lack of room for all her teeth squashed those dreams.
Julia's conversation with the dentist went like this: "You don't have to be an orthodontist to know she is going to need some work. Right there those teeth are together." Me: "Yes, that looks great!" Dentist: "No ma'am there is supposed to be room for another tooth to come in there." Dang. Strike one.
While Caroline seems to have enough room, she had a permanent molar that didn't erupt the entire way. We had an orthodontist 2 years ago tell us that he was concerned it was stuck on the jaw bone. A few years later and opinions from different dentists and orthodontists it was time to make a decision. At her last ortho appointment Dr. Davies gave us his recommendation. If it was his daughter he would have the molar removed and let the next one move over. The hope is that then the wisdom tooth will erupt and it can take the place of the third molar. Sounds confusing, I know.
So, number 19 was removed. Number 18 will move over due to the large space that is now there. Number 17 is a wisdom tooth and the hope is that it will erupt and not be impacted. The likely hood is probably good of that happening with the amount of room she will have on that side. It might not be straight, but that can be fixed with braces. If it doesn't, then she can have a false tooth put in. That will be years down the road, but we needed to make the decision now before number 18 started growing over number 19.
On Monday, we had the procedure done in an oral surgeons office. Dr. Novak did the procedure and he was wonderful. He talks directly to the child and tells them step by step everything he is doing.
They did give her some laughing gas to try and take the edge off. It was much less than I had when I had all my different teeth removed. She was a lot more conscious than I ever remember. Side story: I had 8 baby teeth molars removed and my 4 wisdom teeth. Before I had the first set of 4 done my Dad was joking with me that he could just take a pliers to pull them out. I get there and they put me in the twilight zone and started the procedure. Somewhere in the middle of them taking the teeth out, I see the dentist coming at me with a red pipe wrench and start to wiggle and say "no". I remember the dentist telling the assistant to give me more medication. And that's all I remember. So, no we didn't joke with Caroline about having Brian pull her tooth!
Caroline is able to handle most situations better than Julia. This time, she was scared and didn't want me to leave. She had her Taggie but was shaking, crying and clutching onto me telling me not to leave. I stayed for probably 10 minutes but it wasn't going to help. I told her to close her eyes and I would be right back. Dr. Novak talked to me in the hall and told me that it is best if parents aren't in the room. I said "and I don't want to be!" I reassured him that I knew it was best for everyone for me to be in the waiting room with Brian. The last thing a parent wants is to see their child in pain.
About 10 minutes later they came to get us that the procedure was done. She was being given oxygen and relaxing. We went into see her and she looked pretty good. Dr. Novak told us it went well after I left and she was a great patient. To get the tooth out they used a drill to separate it and they were able to get it out in three pieces.
We went home, she had a chocolate shake from McDonalds (something I remember getting too) and relaxed. She and I started watching the Amazing Race season 19 on YouTube through our Bluray player. Another side note: our church is doing an Amazing Race around the church and the kids didn't know about the show. So we started watching them and they love it. After awhile we made cookies and relaxed some more.
The anesthesia wore off around 4:00 and she was able to eat some soft foods. It started to hurt but we had given her medication through out the afternoon so it was manageable. She went to bed, slept through the night and was back at school the next day!
I can't wait to see what Sarah's teeth issues will be...
Julia's conversation with the dentist went like this: "You don't have to be an orthodontist to know she is going to need some work. Right there those teeth are together." Me: "Yes, that looks great!" Dentist: "No ma'am there is supposed to be room for another tooth to come in there." Dang. Strike one.
While Caroline seems to have enough room, she had a permanent molar that didn't erupt the entire way. We had an orthodontist 2 years ago tell us that he was concerned it was stuck on the jaw bone. A few years later and opinions from different dentists and orthodontists it was time to make a decision. At her last ortho appointment Dr. Davies gave us his recommendation. If it was his daughter he would have the molar removed and let the next one move over. The hope is that then the wisdom tooth will erupt and it can take the place of the third molar. Sounds confusing, I know.
On Monday, we had the procedure done in an oral surgeons office. Dr. Novak did the procedure and he was wonderful. He talks directly to the child and tells them step by step everything he is doing.
They did give her some laughing gas to try and take the edge off. It was much less than I had when I had all my different teeth removed. She was a lot more conscious than I ever remember. Side story: I had 8 baby teeth molars removed and my 4 wisdom teeth. Before I had the first set of 4 done my Dad was joking with me that he could just take a pliers to pull them out. I get there and they put me in the twilight zone and started the procedure. Somewhere in the middle of them taking the teeth out, I see the dentist coming at me with a red pipe wrench and start to wiggle and say "no". I remember the dentist telling the assistant to give me more medication. And that's all I remember. So, no we didn't joke with Caroline about having Brian pull her tooth!
Caroline is able to handle most situations better than Julia. This time, she was scared and didn't want me to leave. She had her Taggie but was shaking, crying and clutching onto me telling me not to leave. I stayed for probably 10 minutes but it wasn't going to help. I told her to close her eyes and I would be right back. Dr. Novak talked to me in the hall and told me that it is best if parents aren't in the room. I said "and I don't want to be!" I reassured him that I knew it was best for everyone for me to be in the waiting room with Brian. The last thing a parent wants is to see their child in pain.
About 10 minutes later they came to get us that the procedure was done. She was being given oxygen and relaxing. We went into see her and she looked pretty good. Dr. Novak told us it went well after I left and she was a great patient. To get the tooth out they used a drill to separate it and they were able to get it out in three pieces.
We went home, she had a chocolate shake from McDonalds (something I remember getting too) and relaxed. She and I started watching the Amazing Race season 19 on YouTube through our Bluray player. Another side note: our church is doing an Amazing Race around the church and the kids didn't know about the show. So we started watching them and they love it. After awhile we made cookies and relaxed some more.
The anesthesia wore off around 4:00 and she was able to eat some soft foods. It started to hurt but we had given her medication through out the afternoon so it was manageable. She went to bed, slept through the night and was back at school the next day!
I can't wait to see what Sarah's teeth issues will be...
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