Saturday, March 08, 2008

Stink-Tooth


About 2 weeks after Libby's fall her front tooth started to turn gray. In the medical community it is known as a "stink-tooth". Her dentist told us that there is nothing wrong with the tooth (other then it looking bad) and that we can either wait until she is 6 and it falls out naturally, or we can have a mini-root canal performed to fix the blood vessel. Beth and I can't stand looking at the tooth so we will probably have the root canal done. Since odds are this will be quite expensive, we are hoping that Libby's GREAT AUNT Gail, who will be going to dental school this fall would take this case on pro bono.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure, I'll do Libby's pulpectomy/pulpotomy .... Jim's got a Dremel tool in the basement. I'd love the experience! Drive on up to Chi-town.

But, if you can't make the drive anytime soon, look into having the tooth cosmetically bonded instead of subjecting her to a kiddy root canal. (Unless you're into torturing your child unnecessarily). Many times it can be done without anesthesia. Techniques have really advanced over the years. Does the tooth bother her? Did she have an x-ray taken to determine the vitality of the pulp? I'll send you the link to an informative paper.

Besides, the last thing you want is to risk having Libby fear her dentist. Then she'll end up with really bad teeth & you'll have to move to England so she fits in. And just how long could you tolerate listening to a Tennessee/British accent??

Sarah said...

Is that a picture of Libby????

I thought it was Jack Nicholson.

Anonymous said...

This happened to my daughter when she was about 3, and our dentist told us the same things you heard. But after a few months we noticed the grey tooth was getting whiter and by the time she was 4 it was almost back to its normal color. She's 6 now, and you totally can't tell even if you look hard. During the time it was grey, no one ever made fun of her, as far as I know, and she herself wasn't terribly aware of it. So maybe wait a while and see if it gets better.