Dentist

I have procrastinated in making this public but now that we have a plan in place I feel a little more comfortable talking about it. The past few months have been a bit of a nightmare for us and as much as I hoped I'd wake up someday and realize it was all just a bad dream, I've finally accepted reality that this is not going away.

Two months ago I took W to the Dentist for the first time. They found several cavities, referred us to a pediatric dentist who wanted to do all the dental work necessary while he was under general anesthesia in the hospital. Because of how many cavities he had, he would probably need fillings or crowns on 7 of his 8 back molars.

We were shocked and disappointed, especially when we found out that because we do not have dental insurance and we have a high medical deductible the cost would be at least $7000 out of pocket.

We decided we needed to explore other options and chose to get a second opinion from a pediatric dentist in Decatur who does most of his work in office using nitrous oxide. We had our first appointment with him yesterday and received good news and bad news.

The good news:
He will not need any crowns on his back molars after all. After doing xrays the decay on his molars was not as bad as we initially were told and Dr. says he should only need fillings and sealants on them. The only cavities were on the top surface so crowns would be unnecessary. We'll be taking care of that in office over 4 separate visits using nitrous oxide.

The bad news:
Due to a combination of 3 factors, his front two teeth will need to be extracted.
1st factor-Genetically, he inherited my overbite
2nd factor-thumb-sucking habit (even though he doesn't anymore, the damage has been done)
3rd factor-He has bumped his front teeth in various falls (they stick out more than average because of factor 1 and 2)

All those things combined has damaged the root of those two teeth so badly that the root is dead, infection has set in and they need to be removed before the infection reaches the permanent teeth. After those teeth are removed he will insert a tongue crib across the roof of his mouth for 6 months that will help to naturally push his top teeth back somewhat and at least partially correct the damage that has been done by the thumb-sucking.

Dr. has him on an antibiotic now for the infection and we'll have our first appointment tomorrow to begin with the lower left quadrant work. The front two teeth will come out at visit three in November.

There are several parts of this that have been hard: worry about finances, worry about how W will handle it and if he will cooperate, experience pain, etc. Of course I don't want my baby to have to go through all this.

But, perhaps the hardest part for me has been the self-doubt and shame I have felt about all of this. As a friend of mine said, "It's not like you let him suck on sugar-pops all day." But I instinctively accept full responsibility for allowing his teeth to get to this point and all too quickly allow myself to believe that I'm a bad mom because of it.

Thank goodness my God reminds me how untrue that is. He reminds me that W is his child too. That we aren't in this alone. That really in the great scheme of life this is going to be a small distant blip on a glorious eternal line. Thank goodness He reminds me of his Grace.

So, we ask for your prayers, your support and your encouragement. We've agonized over these decisions and feel good about the direction we are going. I'll try to update this blog after each visit.

I can already hear W singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..." Lucky him, he'll get to sing it for two years or more!