Our home dentist came through for us and got us in with a great pediatric specialist for W's teeth. Dr. Bob is so wonderful and everything has gone so smoothly! W originally wasn't set to be seen until July 15th, but we got a call and he was seen June 12th. His X-rays were finally taken and our suspicion of him having no enamel was confirmed. His adult teeth were just barely visible and they will be keeping a close eye on their progression to see if they will develop with or without enamel.
His front four baby teeth were too far gone to salvage and had to be extracted in order to preserve his forming adult teeth. They had us set for a tentative date on the 30th of July but got us in June 17th! We were so amazed at how quickly they were able to get him in and make him a priority. The two, one year molars will be crowned to protect them, and he will also receive two fillings to repair a couple damaged teeth. Then once his two year molars come in, he will receive temporary front teeth that they will secure to his molars. This too will be monitored by X-ray, and once his adult teeth start to descend they will remove the temporary teeth so they won't inhibit the growth of his new teeth. These temporary teeth will ensure proper spacing when his adult teeth emerge years later, and proper speech development throughout childhood.
Dan and I are so relieved to finally be on the road of progress yet there's still a long trip ahead of us. I'm just happy W is being properly cared for. He is doing so good! The day of his extractions was so hard. I won't lie - it was extremely difficult to see our sweet boy post surgery with bloody gauze being held in his mouth as he cried. But I got him in my arms and once he was in his car seat I removed the gauze and he instantly stopped crying. Yes, there was still blood but I rode in the backseat with him and had extra gauze pads I used to keep him cleaned up.
He had to be on a liquid diet for a couple hours until the numbing meds wore off so he wouldn't accidentally bite his own lip. Then he easily moved on to a soft food diet of lots of yogurt, soup, pudding, noodles, you name it he ate it! This went on for about a week and a half before we slowly allowed him some of the mushier solids like pizza without the crust, soft breads, and tiny pieces of fruits. He eats everything we eat now - we just cut it up and he's good to go! He had Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and Orajel for two weeks off and on and hasn't needed that in a long time now.
He is currently working on his 1yr. molars and we're hoping since he's 1 1/2 that his 2yr. molars aren't far behind! He has his next dentist appointment in mid August. God willing, I'll be allowed to sit in with him since it's not a surgery this time! I apologize this post took so long - we had a trip to Florida to meet our newborn niece and then the holiday weekend hit us. Now, sadly W is fighting off a virus. We took him to his pediatrician yesterday with a fever of 103.8 and discovered he has herpangina coxsackie virus and will be better within 2-7 days. Lets hope it's just 2! He's already better today with no fever but his apatite isn't back yet. His ped. said it's that time of year for hand, foot, mouth - so take extra care in washing little ones hands and the door handles!
