Tooth: Lost, then Found!

Well, we have had our fair share of dental adventures this year - and I'm HOPING they have come to an end. But we'll see... Here is our most recent teethy adventure...

The other evening as I was brushing Max's teeth, he rose hand and said 'Mom - it hurts, it hurts!' I stopped brushing and looked in his mouth - and oh man - his gum was VERY swollen, and there was a big white bump in the middle of it.

I was hoping it was a little piece of popcorn or something, but after a few days, it got bigger instead of smaller. So we went to the dentist. After some X-rays, the dentist explained that this tooth had a LOT of fillings in it (remember back when he had 17 cavities!?!?) and almost half of it had been replaced with filling. Turns out that it just didn't work out... There was a teeny tiny piece of bacteria or SOMETHING left behind, and the whole root and pulp and everything just rotted away... So the answer: the tooth must come OUT! So they put Max on anti-biotics so that his body would react OK to the novacaine, etc. For the next week and a half, that bump got bigger, hurt more, and puss started oozing out - CONSTANTLY!!! Nasty. It started getting so bad that I finally had to move up the extraction date.

So early on a Monday morning, Max and I headed down to Jungle Dentistry (I LOVE these guys!) down in Tyson's Corner - and 20 minutes later, Max trotted on out proudly sporting his tooth in a little monkey necklace around his neck.

We had to stop off at the mall for a quick errand on the way back - and Max REALLY wanted to wear the tooth necklace in. By this time, his head was starting to hurt - so I decided to let him wear it. We entered through Macy's, and just as we walked into the main part of the mall, Max did a jump, and the monkey part of the necklace FLEW off the string. We ran over to make sure the tooth was OK - but the TOOTH WASN'T THERE! It was gone! So we scoured the floor of the mall. We walked back through Macy's, no luck. Max was devestated. He was so worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't come now that the tooth was lost. So, we went back to the car, to see if it had fallen out in there - no luck... So, we gave up the search, and slowly walked back to the mall to finish our quick errand, when all of the sudden Max yelled out with pure glee! "Mommy, mommy, mommy!!! I FOUND MY TOOTH!" It had fallen out on the sidewalk in front of the store, and he STEPPED on it! Luckily it didn't break. He picked it up - and it was in 'perfect' condition.

So, I kept the tooth in my pocket for safe keeping, and the tooth fairy picked up the tooth that evening!

Max's description of how he felt: "Mom - there is a bomb in my head." It was hurting really bad. Later that afternoon he told me the bomb had gone off, and he was feeling better.

Today Max had a spacer installed to keep his other teeth from moving around. He doesn't like it much. In fact, he hasn't eaten anything all day. Tonight I got him to eat some soup broth. I'm hoping he feels better soon!