17 May 2013

Noah's teeth

When Grant was about 24 years old he had his wisdom teeth extracted. When the dentist did the x-rays he discovered that Grant had two bonus teeth (called supernumerary teeth) growing inside his palate, upwards. They extracted them at the same time.

Fast forward I-won't-say-how-many years and Daniel has a routine dental checkup - they have them at a mobile clinic that comes to their school. The dentist phones me to let me know that they ran some x-rays and he has two supernumeraries in his palate - one pointing upwards and one pointing down.

And lo and behold, at around the same time I spotted something on Noah's palate ... a supernumerary that actually emerged! Yes, he had a bonus tooth, which looked like a spike, growing out of his palate. Weird and kind of gross.

I blame Grant for distributing the freak gene.

Both boys have had their teeth monitored by the oral health unit at a nearby hospital. The risk with supernumeraries is that they can get in the way of orthodontics, and they can develop cysts. So far Daniel's seem to be stable and not doing anything and hopefully won't interfere with orthodontics. But Noah's single supernumerary needed to be extracted, as well as a very large milk molar that was preventing his adult back molar from descending properly.

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He was very nervous about it so we didn't tell him the exact day it would take place until the day dawned - which was this past Wednesday. He had his breakfast early and then wasn't allowed to eat after 6:30am.

Grant was off work that day (it was one of his rest days) so we took him to the hospital together. We'd arranged for Daniel to go home from school with a friend.

At the hospital there were a lot of questions and forms but we didn't have to wait too long. Before we knew it, I was geared up, ready to go into the OR with Noah.

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As soon as they'd administered the anaesthetic gas I left and went back to the waiting room. The procedure didn't take long - only about 25 minutes - and they called me again. Poor Grant didn't even hear them calling me, he just saw me jump up and take off! They brought me into the recovery room because Noah was thrashing around and distressed, even though he was half unconscious still. As soon as I held his hand and talked to him and stroked his head he calmed down.

It took a little while for him to wake up properly, but as he did he held me hand so hard. I tend to be a bit squeamish about blood and operations, so as I stood beside his bed I started feeling sick and hot and like I was going to faint. The nurse brought me a bowl in case I spewed (I didn't) and a cool cloth for the back of my neck and had me sit down. By this time Noah was able to open his eyes and sit up, so they moved us to a room with a recliner where we could just sit and cuddle for a while.

I was feeling okay by then and after cuddling for a while Noah perked up and came round properly. We brought him home and made a fuss of him and he's been absolutely fine. We kept him off school yesterday, but really he could have gone. He declared, "I feel like normal except I have teeth missing!"

And yes, the Tooth Fairy paid him a visit. For those who are interested, here are his teeth.

He was so super brave all day, we are so proud of him. I am amazed at how well he handled it all. At one point, while we were in the waiting room, he said to me, "Mommy, I don't feel very brave right now."

I told him that's exactly what being brave is - you feel scared but you do what you need to do anyway.

SO proud of him.

Finally, for those who are squeamish (they are kinda gross), I will give you a little space as a warning to click away now if you don't want to see the teeth!

Ready?

....

Are you sure?

....

The spike supernumerary is the grossest.

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Really really sure? Okay, here they are.

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