An Afternoon at the Dentist

This afternoon I spent a total of four hours at two different dentists. Not exactly how I had envisioned my day, but we survived. Thank goodness for books, hangman, train tables and the good old iPod.

A few weeks ago Leah showed me a small red bump on her lower right gums. It wasn't hurting her, so I went with the old "let's wait and see if it goes away" response. Good enough. Today however she woke up to find the bump had doubled in size, turned a nice shade of dark purple and was sore to the touch. I called her pediatric dentist and they had no open appointments, but felt certain that if we showed up at 1:15 they could work us in pretty quick. I checked Leah out of school at 12:45 with Lucas in tow and off we went. We settled in to the kid friendly waiting area and after TWO HOURS I was nearly out of my mind. I had a bored and nervous 8 year old singing an aria of "When is it my turn???" and a grumpy nap-less 3 year old who got tired of the train table sixty minutes ago. I went to ask when we could be seen and they could not give me an answer.

I am a patient person, but at that moment I was done. So I called my dentist and explained the situation. He doesn't normally see children, but he said to bring her right in. After a 30 minute drive clear across town we arrived and they took us right back to get X-rays. Soon my dentist was in the room explaining that the bump was an infected abscess. The root of the tooth is a goner and the tooth will need to be either removed or capped. This is of course after she takes a course of antibiotics to get rid of the infection first.

Up until this point we have avoided any major dental work on our children. Just twice a year cleanings and one cavity filled (on Leah's current infected tooth). Can anyone say Dental Bills?! Oh my!

Now we are finally home. The kids really did behave well today even though they had to do a lot of waiting. And that fancy dinner I had planned to prepare tonight? Um, not happening. It's leftovers or PB&J instead! Oh well, some days just don't go as planned and you have to roll with it.

How was your day?