That Was a Close One

It has been six months since Elaina had that nasty fall that caused her upper lip to split and swell like a sausage. Because of that fall, she has been going around with a discoloured and shorten tooth. At least the consoling part was that she didn’t complain about any pain… not until last weekend.

Elaina started to tell us that her tooth was in pain last Thursday evening after dinner and when probed she pointed to the discoloured tooth. The dreaded day finally arrived. Due to the long weekend that stretched from Friday to Sunday, the earliest appointment we could get her was on Monday noon.

During which she kept asking why we aren’t bringing her to the doctor. But as expected, the strong outer appearance crumbled at the dental clinic. The whole struggling, kicking, screaming, crying and attempting to stomp out of the clinic came as an entire package. After a brief view of the discoloured tooth, the dentist referred Elaina to a peodontic (basically a dentist for children) but did advice that between extraction and root canal, the latter would be preferred just to keep the spacing for the next couple of years until the permanent tooth comes in. We left the clinic with Elaina’s face drenched in tears and mucous, and some stickers in hand as pacifier.

Went back to 3 more days of waiting and each day the thoughts of putting her through a root canal and under sedative is enough to make me cringe.

Without a doubt the we had the whole works of struggling, kicking, screaming, crying and attempting to stomp out of the clinic once again at the peodontic’s clinic. It took 4 persons to hold Elaina still before the peodontic could take a close look inside her mouth. With that amount of struggling I wasn’t confident that the peodontic could even get a needle into Elaina to sedate her without breaking the needle or something.

The moment of relief came when the doctor made her first statement. She said that it wasn’t anything serious and that no intervention was needed. From the review, the gum and teeth were healthy. The discoloured tooth was still firmly planted and other than the discolouration it was fine. The pain needs to be one that can affect a person’s appetite and sleep to warrant concern and even though Elaina did point to us the discomfort she felt, she was still eating and sleeping well. Plus the fall happened months ago and it usually won’t take that long for the pain to set it. The best possible explanation was that Elaina could have bit on something hard during dinner to result in some slight discomfort. I pointed out to the doctor that it was unsettling to see the discolouration but she reassured that the discolouration could be due to broken vessel resulting from the fall and blood seeping into the tooth. Discolouration does not necessary equate to a dying tooth.

With that we were sent packing home with the possibility of returning to the peodontic six months later for a review as long as there is no immense pain in the meantime. Within a year of the accident, if the condition doesn’t deteriorate Elaina should be able to keep her tooth there until she loses her milk teeth naturally.

It was 80 bucks well spent for a peace of mind. To Elaina, I think she is equally relieved to know that the dentist is only there to count how many teeth she has. I have managed to con her to return to the dentist in December because she probably will have more than 20  teeth by then and we need the dentist to take count.