Aaron was golfing in a tournament Friday night and I was on call for the weekend. Elsa loves to crawl on all fours with Chet on her back. I held his hands and he would just laugh when Elsa would sound like a Horse. So, we did that for about 20 minutes and then they were distracted by something else. So I decided to make dinner. I look over and Chet is back on top of Elsa and he fell forward. It didn't seem like it was very hard (especially since Elsa didn't cry), but his face hit the back of her head and he instantly started crying. I ran over and took a look at his mouth. There was a little of blood around his left central incisor, but the tooth was not mobile and did not appear to be in a different position. Whew! Just a mild subluxation i thought! He calmed down and I checked again before bed and everything seemed to be okay....until morning. Chet woke up at 5:15 and was really fussy. Nothing seemed to make him happy and he had no interest in eating. At about 8am it was apparent that eating and drinking was causing significant discomfort. So, I take a look. The tooth was split right down the middle! Poor 'lil man! Fortunately, I have the luxury of having lots of great resources in the dental profession ;) I called my dear friend, Laura, who is a pediatric dentist in Sioux Falls to ask a few questions. I knew it needed to be extracted, I just needed some reinforcement! She highly recommended that I step back and be mom and let someone else extract it. Fortunately, my partner Steve was around and graciously agreed to help. I gave Chet some Benadryl to relax him about 30 minutes before. I tried to use some nitrous on him, but he wasn't a big fan of the nasal mask. I sat in the chair and held him and stabilized his head. He cried during the local anesthetic injection but then instantly calmed down when that was over. Aaron held him while the anesthetic was infiltrating and then gave him back to me for the extraction. Steve explored the tooth once he was numb and the fracture extended up onto the root and was definitely nonrestorable. I got worried when it fractured even more and thought it was going to turn into a surgical extraction. Fortunately, the rest of the root came out intact! He squirmed a little bit but he was such a great patient! Especially considering he isn't even 18 months old yet!!!
Elsa was so amazed by the tooth. She walked around all day and had to show our friends that came over that afternoon and tell them all about it!
He totally looks like a hockey player with his wild curly hair and missing front tooth. I guess I have this Halloween costume all set to go!
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