Dental work

Kellen had his teeth cleaned a little over two months ago.  At the time, he had two loose teeth - one on top and another on bottom. The bottom tooth was so loose that they didn't even clean it...and he lost it later that day. The other tooth; however, has not endured the same fate. The permanent tooth was already starting to come in behind the baby tooth, so the dentist said to give it a month or two and if he hadn't gotten it out on his own by then, it needed to be extracted.

Fast forward a little over two months.

To now.

And the tooth still hadn't come out, despite Kellen's diligent attempts to wiggle, prod and pull on the tooth.

In fact, Daddy and Paw Paw attempted to extract the tooth on their own last night. They had a good plan - tie floss around the tooth and pull.

Sounds foolproof, right?

Not so much.

They did so, and the tooth ended up breaking the floss. And causing a lot of pain to Kellen. So we called it quits and decided to let the dentist do it today.

Here is the 'before' picture.

And here's the 'after' picture.

The dentist told me there was NO WAY Kellen would have been able to get the tooth out by himself.

The root was that long. But don't take my word for it. Or the dentists word for it. See for yourself.

Tooth view 1. This is the front view of the tooth.

Tooth view 2. This is the back side of the tooth.

In case you're wondering, he asked for and was given a milkshake as a treat. I also made spaghetti tonight for dinner, because you barely have to chew spaghetti! And we watched How to Train Your Dragon for a special night. He certainly deserved a treat!

This is how the inside of his mouth looked about 4 hours after the procedure, shortly before going to bed. Notice how much of the permanent tooth has already come in on this one. I'm praying that it moves forward, at least a little, on its own. But I also have no illusions about a lack of orthodonics in our future, either.

I'm so proud of him!  He was so brave....