while playing on the monkey bars. She is 3 1/2. I am upset over this and probably making a big deal over it, but I have been so thankful she has nice teeth and she takes care of them, and now this. The tooth is a little jiggly, not chipped nor has it changed positions.
What is the liklihood this tooth will be normal and can be saved? She has a previously scheduled dentist appt for 5/9 and we talked to the dentist already who said no need to move her appt up and we just have to wait and see. He said if the root was not damaged, the tooth may stabilize on its own.
I do not want the took turning brown and if that happens of course, we will have it pulled.
Anyone have any experience with this?
This sucks :(
DD 3 years old brand new baby Luke David born 6/9/08 9lb 1oz 21 1/2 inches long
I have experience with
I have experience with this...my brother knocked out my 2 front teeth when I was 3 (bizarre accident where I lost my teeth and he got stitches in his head). If it just wiggles, you're probably fine, just serve her soft foods until it firms up.
No matter what, do not have the tooth pulled if it doesn't fall out on it's own. The baby teeth provide a route for the permanent teeth to follow when they grow in. By the time I started to get my permanent teeth at 7, the holes where the baby teeth had been were completely healed, and as a result, the teeth grew in bucked, because they had to cut their own path. I spent years going to the orthodonist, starting at 8 and finishing up when I was 14. My teeth are beautiful now, and as fixes go, it was uncomplicated dental work, but it was still 6yrs and several thousand dollars. My teeth were otherwise straight, so I would not have needed braces if my baby teeth had not been knocked out.
I will not have the tooth
I will not have the tooth pulled, only if it starts to turn brown. I do not want her to have a brown tooth. I will just wait and see I guess.
Thanks for your help.
DD 3 years old brand new baby Luke David born 6/9/08 9lb 1oz 21 1/2 inches long
Make an appointment with a
Make an appointment with a pediatric dentist. He/She will know best. Ask a friend for a reference if you don't know one.
Arizona Moms Editor Yvette Armendariz shares stories about raising her kids and tips for busy parents in her Time-starved (goddess) Mom blog. She and her husband are raising two children, ages 8 and 11.
When something similar
When something similar happened to my daughter one evening, i had her at a pediatric dentist that night. (it was like 8 PM) He had to push her one and only tooth back into place.
The dentist had us back in a week and looked her over. He was impressed with the tooth and said it looked good! When he went over all of the options with us, he did mention that it's best if a tooth stays in as long as possible in order to hold a spot for the adult teeth. So, you may want to consider all of the options and not just be concerned about a brown tooth.
My daughter was very fortunate....her tooth never turned brown or fell out. This was almost a year ago and her teeth look great!!
just~me
A lot of times it will
A lot of times it will tighten back up. My daughter banged her front tooth and it turned brown after a while. There is a "paint" type of material the dentist can use to make it be whiter. I gave DD the choice (she was about 4 at the time) and she never decided to have it fixed. You'd be surprised at how many kids are out there with a brown tooth. I never noticed until it happened to her.
Ironic you should mention
Ironic you should mention this, because I was going to post something last week after my daughter (5 1/2 yrs. old) knocked her tooth. She was fooling around and whacked her head on the back of my leg super hard and she loosened a bottom tooth in the front, not to mention her gums were bleeding profusely for about a 1/2 an hour and I was frantic. I called her dentist (pediatric) and luckily even though it was after hours I was able to page an on-call dentist and he called me back. He said since she did hit it so hard and it was very loose and was bleeding to make an appointment for the following day to come in for an x-ray to ensure there was not any root damage done. In any event, my daughter whacked her mouth pretty good, because her tooth/gums/mouth were extremely sore and it's just barely beginning to look better behind her teeth where it had turned into looking like her gums were literally black and blued. We went into the dentist the following day and had an x-ray and confirmed there was not any root damage and the dentist showed me in the x-ray where her permanent teeth are right at her gum line ready to come in. So now she has a very loose tooth and her gums/tooth are quite sore, but she's okay and the tooth will be okay as well as the teeth underneath. Her dentist advised a soft diet for a few days since she was in some pain from pushing her teeth back so far and causing the bleeding, but now she's pretty much back to normal. This happened last Thursday evening. She coincidentally had an appt. lined up already for a cleaning next week so the dentist said they would just recheck at that time to make sure all is well.
Regarding your concern about having the tooth pulled if it turns brown, I would be less concerned about the cosmetic appearance of it and more concerned about it actually being in place to allow a path for the adult teeth to follow to come in so in the long run you're most likely avoiding a hefty orthodontist bill. Also, I don't know if I could put my child through having a tooth pulled simply for cosmetic appeal. I have heard and seen small children having extensive procedures done in the dentist office while being there with my daughter and it's quite traumatizing for them. Unless absolutely necessary in order to avoid something that would be detrimental to her health there would be no way I could sit there and listen to my daughter have to go through something like that and hear her traumatized, in agony, and scared to no end. Just my opinion though!!