Brenden Loses a Tooth (sort of)

So when we took Brenden to the dentist a couple weeks ago they saw an infection and/or abscess on his x-ray that needed to be taken care of before it potentially damaged his permanent tooth still up in his gums. Today was the day to have it fixed, which meant having it pulled out. The Dentist suggested having him under Nitrous Oxide to relax him for the procedure. And he came through like a champ and the whole staff was very impressed with how he did.

So now Brenden has "lost" his first tooth. Jake lost his first tooth at almost 5 1/2, but it looks like he was an odd ball. From the looks of Brenden's tooth and the typical time to lose the first tooth is between 6 & 7 years old he could have that space for quite a while. The Dentist said it would likely take at least a year before the permanent tooth comes in. It makes me a little sad that his first lost tooth came at the hands of the dentist instead of the natural process of loose tooth to tooth falling out on its own, but at least we can do all the other stuff with him tonight. We'll talk about the tooth fairly and start his tooth chart like we did with Jake and I'm sure the Tooth Fairly will leave him a nice treat for doing so good today! :)

His first "lost" tooth - you can see that  there was a lot of the root
left so it was unlikely to fall out anytime soon

The Dentist said that this all happened likely because of a trauma, and most likely it could have been any number of times that he smashed his face so far in his young life. They also said the tooth next to the one removed is also likely dead due to a trauma, but there is no infection or abscess there so we should be fine leaving it until it falls out naturally.

We also had a trip to the Orthodontist for Jake today. One of his permanent teeth came in behind his baby tooth and by the time the baby tooth was pulled out the permanent tooth was too far down to move forward. So now when Jake bites down that tooth is "stuck" behind his bottom teeth, or for the more technical term he has a cross bite with that tooth. The Orthodontist explained today that if they don't treat that early he could have complications arise in the future that could even result with the permanent tooth falling out or being damaged in other ways. So it was his recommendation that we put braces on his front 4 teeth for 4-6 months to pull the tooth forward. And if we like we can also do a retainer after the braces to keep his overly spaced teeth together. None of this will guarantee that he won't need braces or other work again, but it should diminish the possibility and if we do the retainer it will likely mean he won't need anything for cosmetic reasons.

So next week Jake will have his x-rays done and spacers put in the back teeth. He seemed excited about the process once they explained everything and showed him some examples of what it would all look like. He is also excited that he will be able to pick the color of the bands that go around the braces. He was telling the assistant what colors he was going to pick and the order they would be put on since he wanted 3 colors :)

Going through all of this today I'm realizing how fast they are growing up. My Brenden has lost his first tooth and My Jake is getting braces and Rylan keeps telling me she's 6....I have to admit, I'm tearing up a lot more often over these milestones. At least I will have one more baby in a few months since there doesn't seem to be any more in sight around here - sniff, sniff......