Lost Tooth

For Christmas April really did get her two front teeth; she cut the top left one on December 13th and the right one on the 16th.  Well, on New Year’s Eve she decided to give one of them back.  I was taking a rare nap (since Daddy and two grandparents were on the watch) when I woke to Mike saying, “Mommy, you better get up for this.”  He was holding April who was crying, had a mouth covered in blood, and her right front tooth barely hanging in her mouth.  Turns out she had pulled herself up on one of our dining room chairs, bit that tooth firmly into the rail on the chair (see picture), and then proceeded to pull that chair backwards onto herself, ripping out the tooth.

Of course, I freaked out a bit and my reaction almost sent Abe to tears.  Thankfully, Mike is the calm in the storm and he told Abe she would be fine, and Abe completely trusted that.  In fact, after Mike and I left to bring April to the ER, Abe said to my Mom, “Mommy is sad.  Daddy is sad.  April is sad.  You are sad and Grandpa is sad.  But I’m not sad!  She’ll be okay!”

April screamed most of the way to the ER, but then was so tired she fell asleep.  Her tooth had fallen out completely before we left the driveway, which was good because we didn’t want her choking on it.  Once we got there you would never know she had been hurt, except to look at her.  She had a huge, fat bottom lip, a bloody hole where the tooth was, and a big bump on her head.  But she was acting totally fine, waving and smiling at all the nurses/doctors.  Turns out the visit was pretty unnecessary.  They don’t replace a lost baby tooth and, since the mouth heals so quickly, they didn’t do anything for it.  She’ll be that toothless kid until age 6 or 7 when her adult teeth come it.

We’re going to take her in to a pediatric dentist hopefully this next week just to make sure there isn’t something we should do to prevent future problems with those permanent teeth.  You can see from the picture that it created quite a gash and seems to have exposed another baby tooth.  Pretty nasty looking, but she doesn’t even seem to notice it.  Slept great, nursed great, and even ate her cheese and turkey fine the next day.  She’s a tough cookie.   So, there you have it.  Our first trip to the ER as parents came as the result of the little lady, not her older brother.

UPDATE:  1/3/2010  I took April to a pediatric dentist today.  He said everything looks like it is healing well and, from what he could see, that no other teeth were damaged.  Basically, there isn’t really anything we can do at this point.  We’ll just keep an eye on things as she grows and her teeth continue to come in.