Pure Horror

The junior high school nurse called this morning. J slipped and broke her top left front tooth. I gave her the number of our dentist and arranged to meet them at the clinic right away. Classmates searched and found two pieces of tooth for the nurse to wrap in gauze and place in a small plastic case filled with water to bring to the dentist.

The dentist explained that the portion broken off was enamel but both front teeth were a little loose. The X-ray didn't show cracking and he couldn't evaluate possible nerve damage until the bruised gums firm up. He put a plastic splint on, anchoring the two loose middle teeth together and to the firm teeth on either side and recommended that any pressure to the teeth be avoided by cutting food into very small pieces and only using the back teeth until Friday, when he'll do more testing to see if a root canal may be necessary in addition to cementing the tooth back together or giving her a crown. He said that things look OK, but the worst case scenario is that the tooth may be lost. Aaaaaauugh!

J was well enough to return to school with the nurse and I went home to make a special lunch to take to her at school so she wouldn't have to worry about chomping into school lunch fare. She got half a cup of boiled broccoli (well chopped), teriyaki grilled tuna steak (chopped into 16 half inch cubes), rice topped half and half with a scrambled egg and some sauteed ground chicken flavored with soy sauce and sugar, a yogurt, almond-milk flavored Chinese jello cubes in fruit cocktail and a bottle of oolong tea. I even remembered to add a spoon.

I'm glad we were able to get her to our dentist quickly and hope that she doesn't have to lose the tooth. Oh my baby!!!