Owen's Tooth

Yesterday, Owen woke up with a big swollen upper lip. It was so big that I thought he had an allergic reaction to something, but couldn't figure out what it was. When Shane woke up later in the afternoon I had him look at it and he was able to lift up Owen's lip to see this large pea sized pimple on his gum. It was right above the tooth he chipped last year when he was using Dallin's skate board. I looked and sure enough there was this thing sticking out from his gums. That is what was making his lip swell up. We went on Web MD to see if we could fine something. I searched under swollen lips and gums. It came up with many choices, but one of them was an abscess.


'Abscess . Abscesses are infections that occur around the root of a tooth or in the space between the teeth and gums. Abscesses are a serious condition that can damage tissue and surrounding teeth, with the infection possibly spreading to other parts of the body if left untreated.Because of the serious oral health and general health problems that can result from an abscess, see your dentist as soon as possible if you discover a pimple-like swelling on your gum that usually is painful. In the meantime, to ease the pain and draw the pus toward the surface, try rinsing your mouth with a mild salt water solution (1/2 teaspoon of table salt in 8 ounces of water) several times a day.'


After I read that I called our dentist and explained what was going on with Owen and asked what we needed to do. Our dentist said that he could get us in to see Owen in the morning. Well after we got off the phone with him I noticed that Owen's tooth was draining this yellowish fluid with some blood. It was definitely infected and looked really gross. Morning came and Shane and I took Owen into the dentist. Owen did really well when the dentist was looking at it, but then he wanted to get an x-ray and that was the tricky part. Owen isn't one for doctors. So he started to put up a fight. Shane had him on his lap holding him with the lead apron on top. I was holding Owen's head so we could get the x-ray. The dentist was holding the film in Owen's mouth while his assistant took the x-ray. It took four of us, but we got it done.


The x-ray showed that there was a lot of infection up and around his chipped tooth. The dentist said that the tooth was probably going to need to be removed and that we needed to be referred to a pediatric dentist. He called the one he works with and explained that he had a 2 year old that had an abscessed front tooth. They told our dentist that we needed to come in right away. So off we went to the other dentist. We waited in the waiting room for a bit and then finally was called back. Owen wasn't too excited by this point. He had enough of doctors for one day. They took one look at it and said it needed to come out since his permanent tooth was budding and could damage it. Shane said then lets take it out.


We went into another room called the quiet room. It is called the quiet room because it is a room that is sealed with two doors so no one else can hear what goes on inside. They don't want to scare other little kids in the waiting room with screaming kids. We had to strap Owen in a papoose so that he would be grabbing at anything. While they were getting him strapped down they applied the laughing gas and it totally calmed him down. After the gas hard a chance to work the dentist put a couple of shots of Novocaine into that gum so that Owen wouldn't be able to feel it. Then he removed the tooth. It was quite fast and Owen did so good. He told the dentist thank you and blew kisses at his assistant. I was quite impressed that he didn't scream or make this one of our usual visits to the doctor. He was a very brave boy.


On the way home we stopped at Target to buy him a prize for being so brave. He wanted this V-Tech Computer, that you can play games on to learn numbers and ABC's. Then we headed home. He fell asleep on the way home and slept for a couple of hours. He is doing fine and just looks more like a hill billy then before. I had no idea that this could ever happen. I guess it is a good thing we never had a cap put on that tooth.