Dental Issues

Last summer we noticed that Shelby had two brown lines on her bottom middle teeth. I was concerned but Corry has stains on his teeth that he's had as long as I've known him so pushed it aside in my mind and thought it must be something hereditary. I made a dentist appointment at a pediatric dentist that ended up being cancelled because of the hurricane. I rescheduled when all calmed down and she ended up going to the dentist in late October. By this point, her bottom teeth were literally disintegrating and I was noticing other brown spots on her other front teeth and also solid white lines at the top of her teeth. I knew it was going to be bad, but had no idea how bad it really was. At that time the dentist told me that she was going to need 5 caps and two of them would be silver on her bottom front teeth. After they told me that I didn't hear a whole lot that followed, just a loud buzzing noise while I nodded my head.

So I decided to get a second opinion and to see if there were other options. I went to a dentist in Pearland and she found the same thing but said that she didn't generally use silver caps. She said it may be possible to put some type of crowns with a bridge or if the teeth were not big enough she could extract them.

I was so devastated when I found out how bad her teeth were. The second dentist told me that the enamel was weak and hadn't formed well on her teeth so they were exceptionally prone to decay. It's just so sad when your baby, that you have watched while each little tooth pokes through and grows, loses her teeth because of something like this. I asked if it were possible that too much juice in a sippy cup would do this and the dentist said if that were the case her teeth would have had to soak in a sugary liquid all night long every night. That wasn't the case but it's so hard not to wonder what all we did wrong and what we could have done differently had we known how her teeth were. I'm not really sure what the cause was besides "bad teeth" or genetics. Of course I've googled weak tooth enamel and tons of things pop up- especially the use of Amoxicillin with infants, which Shelby was on several times from 4-9months. I probably won't ever really know, though.

Fast forward to January a couple of weeks ago when her dental appointment finally arrived. We opted to have it at a surgery center where they would put her under anesthesia and the dentist came to the center. She was having way too much work to consider doing it at the dentist while drowsy so it took over two months to get her in for an appointment.

Corry and I took her early in the morning the Friday before we left for vacation. The surgery center was in Clear Lake so we had to drive a ways and wouldn't you know- Shelby got carsick on the way there. Not a good way to start the morning. She recovered, though, and was in good spirits by the time we got to the center. All of the staff were so good with her and really put us at ease with having to put her under. The procedure took almost two hours. They ended up having to pull her bottom middle teeth, put 3 white caps on 3 of her front top teeth and she also had two additional cavities in back that she hadn't had 3 months before. The back teeth just required fillings. She had two more cavities than she had when she was x-rayed three months before. That was with religious brushing morning and night, fluoride rinse, one cup of diluted juice a day, and watching that she doesn't eat too much sugar. I am scared for what the future holds for the rest of her teeth. They were able to put sealants on some of her molars. I think they said one of them hasn't fully emerged yet so they weren't able to seal it.

I had never experienced a child coming out of anesthesia and they warned us beforehand at how distraught most children are afterwards. When they came to get us in the lobby, we walked to the recovery area and she was just crying inconsolably, her mouth was swollen and bleeding, and she was very confused. She threw up several times and they ended up giving her anti-nausea medication that let her sleep for a little while as I held her. About an hour later she woke up and was much better. We took her home and she slept a good part of the day. She woke up the next morning good as new and ready for vacation thankfully! She also had an early visit from the Tooth Fairy for the two teeth that were pulled (the Tooth Fairy must have felt sorry for Autumn because she left her two dimes under her pillow, too). At 2 and 4 the amount of money isn't very important yet and any small shiny coin seems to make them happy!

Shelby's new smile actually makes me smile now. It fits her quirky little self and she is still as cute as ever. The caps are a little bulkier than a normal tooth, but it's only noticeable if she smiles really big. She has dental appointments every three months for now so we'll see what happens next time.

Oh, and good news about her arm- she got her cast off Monday and just has to wear a brace for the next three weeks. She was scared to death getting the cast cut off but the Dr. was pretty quick, even with her being restrained not so peacefully by the nurse.

I was hoping for a little quieter year than this has been so far! Hopefully Shelby's just getting it all out of the way right now!

Here's Shelby with her new smile and her brace...