To The Dentist We Will Go

{The last picture I can find of him even decently smiling before he lost his front tooth}

Backstory:

-- L's  teeth started to come in really early, and really fast. He cut his first two teeth by four months, two more the following month, and so on. Until he had everything but his molars, no exaggeration, by his first birthday. It was miserable for this momma, and I'm sure for his poor mouth, too.

-- L has always had a fascination with putting rocks in his mouth -- and no matter how many times I tell him not to, or how quickly I catch him, it always seems to happen.

-- I started noticing ridges on L's upper front teeth, his first teeth to come in, when he was almost a year old. I mentioned this concern of mine to his Ped, who rubbed his teeth, continued to check them at visits, and said to keep an eye on them, but they didn't feel like anything was wrong.


Cut to February. We were driving around base letting L nap in the car for a few minutes before heading to the grocery store. All of a sudden, L wakes up crying and trying to spit something out. I saw a white piece pop out of his mouth and pulled over, grabbing it as quick as I could to see what he had in there.

It was half of his tooth. Had just cracked off.

So of course we took him to the Ped to called a dentist friend of hers and they were able to get him in that afternoon. Of course they weren't able to save the tooth -- and he had to have the rest of is extracted. The Dentist couldn't seem to see what would have caused it, other than the fact that MAYBE some of his rock episodes had fractured a tooth, and even though everyone and their mother has inspected it over time, it went clearly unnoticed until it just fell out.

So L has been rocking a front-tooth-less smile since then. And now, we have concern about a few other teeth there in the front. The Dentist is great with him -- but has already mentioned that he may need a filling or two in those teeth, just to keep them until he reaches the typical age where teeth fall out and adult teeth grow in.

Yesterday was a 6 month check up! It went as expected. They want to put baby crowns [not as invasive as adult work] on the other front teeth, and he'll have to go under anesthesia at the hospital to have it done. After that, he should be back to normal routine check ups, and not so much dental work. Hopefully.

He was such a trooper! It's nobody's favorite place to be, but at least if we HAVE to be there, I know he is in good hands!