Health TRACKer: Tooth Trouble

I should have been making breakfast for my girls and excitedly talking to them about the day's upcoming festivities. After all it was the first Halloween that Kennedy was actually excited about. She had picked out her Cinderella costume and Dylan was going to be a pirate princess. But that wasn't how my morning was going. Instead I was sitting in an hospital room and listening to an anesthesiologist talk to me about the possible side effects of general anesthesia. I guess listening isn't an accurate term. It was more like staring at him with glazed over eyes and feeling like I was going to pass out. I was extremely strong the first time Kennedy was put under but sobbed my eyes out while walking to the waiting room. Something about the thought of my child going under sedation makes my brain go completely numb. The procedure wasn't that difficult and I would have been fine if it was for me. But it wasn't and it's different when it's your kid. Luckily my husband is aware of this phenomenon and graciously offered to go back and help restrain her while they put the gas mask over her mouth. I couldn't handle it again. All of this had started a few months ago during a regular dental checkup...

One night while brushing Kennedy's teeth I noticed that she had some dark spots on her back molars. I attributed it to to the chocolate that she had eaten and attempted to brush away the marks. But I wasn't able to and within a few days the teeth had turned slightly gray. I couldn't understand why considering that I had been pretty vigilant about keeping up with her dental appointments. Especially due to the fact that her dentist was a close family friend. Not knowing what to do I made an appointment with her dentist to figure out what was going on.

Now please note that Kennedy is somewhat mouth defensive. She doesn't like anyone looking in her mouth and we actually had to use a special metal contraption to hold her mouth open. I felt horrible but what else was I going to do? The dentist had to get a good look inside to determine why her teeth were suddenly discolored. After about a minute (because that was all that we got as a result of Kennedy squirming around in the chair and loudly sobbing) the dentist told me that her teeth were gray because they were rotten. My first reaction was embarrassment. I mean I wasn't completely perfect about keeping her teeth brushed but I did brush them! My face turned bright red and I asked why it had happened. The dentist explained to me that it was as a result of all of the infections that Kennedy had had when she was younger. I was shocked. I knew that Kennedy had quite a few infections when she was younger such as ear infections and bladder reflux but I didn't understand how they could affect her teeth. Apparently she had been going through all of that yucky stuff at about the same time that her back molars were coming in. They caused the teeth to be softer and more prone to decay.

The dentist told us that we could get it taken care of in the office. They would give Kennedy a low level sedative and then fix her teeth. They would have to grind them down, check the roots and then cap them. They needed to be capped because her jaw was still growing and they had to make sure that her bite was correct. I remember being cautiously optimistic about Kennedy taking the sedative considering that she had never taken it before. And trust me - we had tried to get her to take it. Bribery, begging, forcing her to take it but she always spit it out.

The day arrived and we happily went into the calm room to await the little cup of red happy juice. Kennedy eyed it warily and I kept my fingers crossed. We had to fight with her to take it but she eventually did. Success! At least until she vomited it all over the dentist's white couch and smiled at me knowing that she had yet again won another round. So we made the appointment to have it done under general anesthesia in the hospital.

Kennedy's surgery went exceptionally well and her new stainless teeth are very shiny. She has been very good about letting me brush them and I call them her special silver teeth. It was a boring Halloween since she spent it passed out on the couch but we are grateful that we got it done. Her stainless steel teeth will fall out when her permanent teeth push up so we won't be having to return to the hospital for more dental work. And Kennedy even let her dentist examine her mouth during her post op check up so I am hoping we are over the dental defensiveness maneuvers!

On a side note a friend of ours that is an orthodontist said that Kennedy might have some discoloration on her permanent teeth. I am keeping my fingers crossed and I am hoping they come out shiny white!