Joshua's first trip to the dentist

It all started on a beautiful Saturday morning when Daniel and I decided to go down to the park and watch the softball game.  Joshua of course had no interest in watching softball.  All he wanted to do was walk around and throw his ball so we took shifts.  When it was my turn we walked around, threw his ball around and then sat on a bench together.  While sitting on the bench he tried to scoot forward to get off the bench, fell forward on to the concrete and landed flat on his face.  Of course he cried and I picked him up immediately.  I took one look at his face and saw a mouth full of blood.  I called Daniel over and told him to take a look while Joshua was resting over my shoulder.  Daniel looked in his mouth and said, "his tooth is cracked!"  What?  A cracked tooth?  Where do we go for that?  The ER, urgent care, the dentist, the emergency dentist?  After gathering our thoughts we decided to take Joshua home, clean him up and take a closer look then call the on call nurse to see what they recommended.  On the drive home Joshua sat in my lap in the front seat.  When we drove passed some horses he whimpered, "neigh."  Such a sweet, tough boy.

After we got home we noticed that his tooth was fractured from top to bottom and all the way through the tooth; his tooth was split in two.  The on call nurse gave us some signs to watch out for that would warrant a trip to the ER but said that he sounded fine to wait until Monday to be seen. 

We gave him Tylenol and he took a short nap.  After his nap he was fine.  He got Tylenol before bed and slept great.  He did fine on Sunday as well.  You would have never guessed that he had a cracked tooth. 

On Monday, after jumping through a bunch of insurance hoops, we finally got him scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon with a pediatric dentist.  Joshua's Papa came with us so that he could stay with Joshua for the x-ray, since I am pregnant.  After the x-ray the dentist told us that his tooth was fractured in two places and one of the fractures went all the way up to the root.  How he was eating, drinking, and sucking his thumb is beyond me.  The doctor was even baffled by the fact that he didn't seem to be in any pain. Then he gave us the news that his tooth would need to be extracted.  I did a lot of research beforehand and had our neighbor, who is a dental hygienist , take a look so I was pretty much expecting this news. 

They gave him a numbing shot and pulled the tooth while a nurse and I held him down-saddest thing ever!  The whole process took about 10 minutes and the tooth pulling took about 30 seconds.  The dentist said that he was their youngest patient for that office. After we got in the car he was fine and asking for crackers.  Once we were home he played right away and was back to his old self.  What a champ! 

As far as a replacement tooth, he can get one when he is 2 or 3.  Until then he will be our little hockey player. 

It was so hard to watch Joshua go through all of this but we are so glad it is over and thankful that it wasn't worse or that it didn't leave him with any permanent damage. 

Having one less tooth has not slowed him down in anyway or made him any less cute.  In fact, I think it adds character to my little goofball ;)

The fractured tooth on Sunday.  Excuse his messy face. 

 

He wanted nothing to do with that vest.

 

"uuhh, you're going to do what with that?"

 

Poor guy worked so hard for his teeth only to go and have one pulled.

 

Having one less tooth fits his tough guy look ;)

 

"Ooh this feels different."

 

I find it so crazy that this happened while he was nice and calm, sitting on his bottom right next to me.  Not while he was doing one of his crazy man stunts. 

 

At first, I avoided looking at the missing tooth because it made me so sad but whenever I do get a glimpse of it I can't help but chuckle.  

 

Joshua is doing great.  He is eating, drinking, playing, and sleeping just like normal.  This doesn't seemed to have phased him one bit.  Thank you Jesus!

 

Our first major injury, oh my!