Sophia's little mishap.

 A couple months ago we went on a sight seeing trip with my Aunt, grandparents, sister and her husband and baby. Took the day and went to the Gates of the Mountains in Montana. It was a fun trip, but quite warm, so leaving the boat we were very hot and tired and hungry. There was not much of a place to eat so we left to find a pick-nick spot for lunch. We settled on a site along the river on the way back to Great Falls, even though it was very rough and not kid friendly. I don't mind making my kid rough it, but what worried me was all the huge rocks in the pick-nick site, all around the table. I've never seen a site like this, trash filled the fire pit and it was filthy, but we made the best of it, being we were all starving.

Things were fine, we were all done eating. Sophia had been really good not running around. But she got some little bee in her bonnet telling her to run, and in slow motion I saw her fall face down towards the pick-nick table. I couldn't get up fast enough. I knew this was gonna hurt and I was half expecting stitches and broken teeth. Too our dismay and surprise, she had no broken teeth, but she did bite half way through her bottom lip with her front teeth, as well as separating the gum that came down to the 2 front teeth. 

She bled for quite a while, but we got it slowed with some ice and decided there was nothing they could do to fix it. Dan was about her age when he did the same thing, but actually did bite all the way through the lip and taking him to the Dr. determined nothing could be done, it would heal on it's own. 

She cried and after a while we took her for a wade in the river to cool her down and slow more of the bleeding. She loved it and we were just careful to not get her face wet. We took some pictures of her poor injured mouth, thought she may want to see someday.

This is before the mishap, earlier that day on the boat tour.

This is after the accident... She was such a trooper! Fat lip and all...

Well she was sore that night, but I still brushed her teeth the best I could avoiding the lip and top gum line. She was brave. I told Dan I was closely watching the two front teeth though.

Time went on and she seemed fine, I couldn't brush the top teeth very well for a couple weeks, but as soon as she would allow me I did. About 2 months went by and I started noticing some discoloration in the right front tooth at the gum line. I was getting worried it was a cavity so I took her to the dentist and sure enough she looked at it and confirmed my fear. It was a small one and she said all the rest of the teeth looked perfect. I was elated that I was doing a good job and it was from the accident. She said it must have damaged the tooth slightly so that it allowed food to get caught and form a cavity, since I couldn't brush her that well for a bit, that's when it happened. She scraped on Sophia's tooth for a couple minuets, with Sophia tolerating it very well. The Dr. said we could bring her back and give her some happy gas and get it filled. 2 days later we took Sophia back and she did fine until they pulled the tiny pink mask out that smelled like strawberries, she was not happy about that and panicked a bit. So the Dr. said we would have to take her to a specialist in Helena.

We did that today and I showed the tooth with the problem to the tech girl and she glanced at it and then really started looking at the tooth next to it and I kept saying no it's the right tooth. So the Dr. comes up visits with Sophia and takes a look at the tooth and gently tells me the left tooth has died! I was shocked, the tech girl said she could see that right away, but could tell I didn't know. I guess when Sophia fell she severed the nerve to the tooth and it died. I am about crying at this point, thinking I am a horrible mother for not taking my kid in sooner, then he tells me there was nothing I could have done. They see this thing all the time. If the nerve is severed it's gone. He then told me if I had brought her in he would have told me to wait anyway to see what it would do. 

To determine for sure it was gone they even did a cold test. Spraying a q-tip with CO2 to make it 40 degrees below zero, then warning me she might scream if the tooth is alive touched it to her tooth and she just looked at me a grinned, so it was firmly established the tooth had died. 

So my options are to remove the tooth and risk the adult tooth having a hard time coming in because it now has to push through bone that has grown over, or doing a baby "root canal" to save what we could and give her a chance of keeping the tooth for a couple more years. Dan and I were worried about her speech being affected, as she doesn't talk much yet and kids loosing front teeth can have a severe lisp. The Dr. thought it would be a 50/50 percent chance of this working and if it doesn't she will get an abscessed tooth and it will still have to be removed. Worrying about the problems with pushing through bone and speech we opted to try the second approach and save the tooth for as long as we can. We'll see. 

Can't get her in for a month, so lots of kisses until then. But I've learned we can't always keep them safe. She's my little girl and always will be, but God I wish it wasn't this hard sometimes. I keep beating myself up today thinking I should have been more careful, but I don't want her growing up in a bubble, she's gonna get hurt and I do what I can.