Seth's Teeth

Today Seth had a tooth pulled. He needed major dental work when he was two and a half. His top four front teeth were severely decayed: the rightmost one was beyond salvaging, and the other three were capped (with white plastic). His first-year molars all have metal caps, and his second-year molars all got fillings. The work had to be done with Seth under general anesthesia -- it was scary to let him go in for surgery, even though I knew it was fairly minor.

The good news is that there was no further decay, and the caps and fillings all held up well.... until about six weeks ago. Seth came home from school with his leftmost front cap missing. He said, "My tooth fell out!" But, when I checked, I could see it had just broken off at the base.

First dental visit (one week later)-- inconclusive. Maybe it's infected, maybe the next one is infected too; or, maybe not. We decide to "wait and see" for a month.

Second dental visit (four weeks later) -- inconclusive. The broken-off tooth is definitely infected and must be pulled, but not until after a 10-day course of antibiotics. The neighbor may or may not be ok, but we are going to let it alone. Why? Because if we pull it proactively, we'll have to take the remaining one too. Otherwise, the last tooth will be out there all on its own, looking funny and (more importantly) being very vulnerable.

Third dental visit (one week later) -- one extraction, still inconclusive on the neighbor tooth. Seth held up well, although he cried some on the car ride home. He decided not to go to school, and instead came to Eli's toddler playgroup. It went ok, although he was more prone to sudden tears than usual.

I will just be glad when his adult teeth come in, and we know for sure whether or not they will have the same crappy enamel as his baby teeth.