Jacob's premature visit from the Tooth Fairy

It all started last week with Jacob complaining that his tooth hurt. By Friday, he was on Motrin constantly, so off we went to the dentist after school. The dentist said that a filling he'd gotten back in December was so deep that it probably irritated the nerve and he'd need a pulpotomy (a procedure where they remove the pulp from the inside of the top portion of the tooth). He referred us to a pediatric dentist for the procedure. Before leaving the dentist's office, the receptionist called over to the pediatric dental office to see if they could see Jacob the same day or even Saturday. They said the earliest they could see him would be Monday morning, so we made the appointment for then.
Friday evening Jacob was absolutely miserable and we also noticed that the left side of his jaw was swollen. That night was awful. Even with taking Motrin and Tylenol with codeine, he was still in a lot of pain.




Saturday morning we called the pediatric dentist's answering service, and after some confusion on the part of the answering service person, the dentist, Dr. Wong, called us back. We told him how Jacob was in a lot of pain and his face was swollen. When he heard that he was swollen he told us to meet him at his office that morning. We arrived at the medical building and met Dr. Wong in the parking lot. He took us upstairs to the office where he examined Jacob. He took an X-ray of the tooth in question. After looking at the X-ray, he told us that it was abcessed and that a pulpotomy wouldn't work. He would either do a pulpectomy (root canal on a baby tooth) or he'd pull the tooth and put in a space maintainer to keep the other teeth from shifting. We decided to go with option two, to pull the tooth, since there was a 50% chance that the pulpectomy might not work and he'd have to pull it anyway. He prescribed an antibiotic to fight the infection. One thing about Jacob is that he HATES to take medicine, so it's been a challenge to get him to take it!

Dr. Wong also sent Jacob home with the "nose" that he would have to wear for the procedure, by which he would breathe the nitrous oxide (laughing gas). He got to pick the scent he wanted. He chose the grape scent. Here he is at home wearing his grape-flavored "nose".

Saturday night he only woke up once because of the pain. Already, the antibiotics were working! Sunday, although he was still swollen, he was in much less pain. Sunday night he slept through the night, and in his own bed too!
Finally this morning I picked Jacob up early from school and we headed to Hamden to see Dr. Wong. We brought the "nose" with us and the assistant connected it up to the tubes for the nitrous oxide. He also got to wear some cool shades to keep the bright light out of his eyes. He looked so silly!

Anyway, the whole procedure went smoothly! Jacob was just awesome. He even giggled when Dr. Wong cracked jokes for him. I have to say I have never seen such a good children's dentist before. He was just great, and I'll be taking the kids to him from now on.
So here's a semi-blurry picture of the tooth taken before being offered up to the Tooth Fairy!

And so ends our story of how Jacob lost his first baby tooth!