"Fun" at the Dentist

OK, so the week before Halloween the boys had their semi-annual cleanings done. I know, before Halloween seems like a waste of a cleaning but it had to be done. Micheal and Tanners cleanings went without a hitch. But....during Clayton's cleaning, the dentist said that Clayton's permanent molar was stuck on a baby molar. Not good! Usually, the teeth come in without any problem at all, so they were watching it to see if it would take care of itself, but it didn't. He said that the little molar had to be taken out so the big molar could come in. (Check the xray above.)

Then he told me that Clayton isn't growing some of his permanent teeth on the top of his mouth. Not good! So, we have to try to protect and save his baby teeth on that side so that he has teeth. I didn't know that could even happen! All the problems happen to be on the top of his mouth. Poor Clayton! He'll be in and out of dentist offices the rest of his life. The dentist said that the baby teeth we are trying to save will only last until he is about 30 and then he'll have to have implants put in if he wants teeth to chew with. The good news: the dentist doesn't see any wisdom teeth pockets growing so Clayton may not get any wisdom teeth.

Well on Tuesday we had Clayton's little molar extracted and a couple of cavities fixed. I had to warn the dentist to not say the words "shot" or "needle" around Clayton unless he felt like getting into a knock-down-drag-out-fight, so he said "no problem, we can give him a little laughing gas and he won't even know." Sure enough, he doesn't remember anything except the dentist humming a tune. YAY! After a couple of hours and some children's motrin, you would never even know he had any work done at all. He can't have any hard foods like popcorn, peanuts, potato chips or hard candy for 2 weeks, which is a bummer for a kid but... he can eat as much mashed potatoes, applesauce, jello, pudding, homemade milkshakes/smoothies, and ice cream he wants for 2 weeks to compensate. He has been such a trooper! Way to go Clayton!