Daniel's Tooth Extraction

Daniel's second year in pre-school was difficult - he broke his arm that year and he also tripped and fell mouth-first into a bookshelf, loosening one of his front teeth.  As a result, he had to eat on the side of his mouth and it meant he gave up his pacifier because he couldn't use it on his wiggly front tooth. (Score!)  And then it was better and we didn't think about it again. 

But at his six-month check-up, the doctor noticed an abscess and told us the tooth had to go.  She said it wasn't an immediate need, but it was urgent and we should address it soon.  So I selfishly decided to wait until after the DisneyWorld trip so he wouldn't have a big gap-tooth grin in all those pictures.

This meant that we scheduled the extraction the week after we came back.  Daniel and I drove his siblings to school and then we headed off to the dentists' office.  They are a "dog-friendly" office and there are a couple of little dogs who frequent the waiting area and exam rooms.  Daniel is the least dog-friendly of the kids, but he made an effort to approach the little dog in the waiting area.

Then our name was called and we headed back into the exam room where Daniel was hooked up with a little laughing gas to relax him.

After that he got a local anesthetic injection and the dentist pulled out her gold-plated pliers and yanked the affected tooth out.  I don't know how I thought they were going to extract the tooth, but I guess I thought it would be slightly more high-tech than that, so I was startled.  After that, we held gauze to the open area for a bit, rinsed, and then headed out to visit the prize bin where Daniel chose little things for himself and for his brother and sister.

As we all know, the reward for any dental work is, of course, ICE CREAM!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home until it was time to collect Max and Caroline from school (and show off the gap-tooth smile, of course).