Teeth….

You know, really teeth are over-rated. Especially permanent teeth. At least that seemed to be Edric’s thoughts a couple of weeks ago. We were gearing up for our after dinner bike ride around the block and I was grabbing my shoes when I heard Edric start to cry, and it was one of those cries where you know he is hurt. I ran out to the kitchen and Clint had him and a towel to his mouth. I asked what was wrong and Clint just told me “I don’t know, his mouth is bleeding”. I took a look inside and yes, he had a small abrasion on his lower lip that was bleeding but the bigger issue is that his two front permanent teeth were completely broken off and shaped rather like vampire teeth. We called the dentist and they had an on call dentist that quickly called me back and I sent him photos and he asked how soon we could be at the office. So our Friday night bike ride quickly turned into an Friday night at the dentist office adventure. I got a few more details from the other kids who had witnessed the fall, and really it was a simple turn the bike too quick and he flew off and landed on his front teeth. Thankfully the kids all know not to get on their bikes without helmets on. So Edric and I made our way to the dentist’s office where they examined him and then took some xrays and thought that they could likely save the roots of both teeth if they did a mini root canal on the one that was split a good ways up into his gum and to clean out the root on the other and build partial teeth. They gave Edric laughing gas and numbed him up and turned on Garfield and he was happy as could be. It took a couple of hours and was way past Edric’s bedtime when we left but he was in good spirits and the dental team were all great. We’ll head back this week to make sure the roots are still looking good and then hopefully schedule a time for them to rebuild full teeth from the roots that are there in a couple of weeks. He will likely need to have an orthodontist bring one of the teeth down a bit so they can properly cap it because it broke so far up into his gum. I kind of have to laugh about a few things with all of it. When we had seen the dentist a few weeks before for the kids’ routine cleanings she had mentioned that Edric’s teeth were freckled and stained which was likely from an exposure to who knows what while he was in utero or early after birth long before he came home. She said if it ever bothered him when he got bigger they could put a veneer on it to make his teeth all one color. Well as it turns out he completely knocked them out so he won’t have to worry about a veneer at any time in the future. Also when we visited the orthodontist last year for our initial intake she had told us that she wanted to wait a year for his teeth to come in more…and so they came in and then got totally knocked out. We can never win. Last year he had knocked part of his cap off one of his front teeth that he had placed when he first came home, and so while the cap was still there the white part was gone so he looked like a jack-o-lantern for halloween with his teeth….this year he went for the vampire look I guess….I told him he can’t be a ghost next year. When we got home that evening the kids had picked up a little gift for him, they got him a blanket shaped like a shark which he has used every night since.