April 6, 2009

Luke's Tooth


Two weeks ago Luke was being "Super Luke" at church and fell down, busting his lip. He was wearing a superman cape that had some big plastic front on it like a chest plate or something. When he fell he hit his mouth on that, bumping his front tooth. It became really loose and Andy had to shift it back in place. We did ice etc and thought it was ok because the tooth tightened back up. It bled for a while but we thought we'd done everything we knew to do. About a week later I started noticing that it was changing colors. I mentioned it to Andy and he said that he had noticed too. Now it is a light shade of gray. Don't know if you can tell from this picture but it is on his left, the front tooth. He went to the dentist today to have x-rays and we found out that the tooth is dead. We have 3 options:
1. Do nothing now, wait for it to fall out and take action then. But watch it closely to make sure an abcess doesn't form.
2. Have it extracted. Then have something put back in it's place- a spacer or a fake tooth? Not sure.
3. Root canal. Why? what is the difference in doing this and pulling it?
Andy took him to the dentist today so this is the info he gave me. Anyone else had to deal with this or have any advice?

4 comments:

Erin said...

Finley busted his front tooth and chipped it. Our dentist said that it might change color but has not yet. She said that his adult tooth might be damaged but would not know until it came in. James wants to cap it but I think that it is kinda cute. My cousin's daughter fell and her tooth fell out and now there is just a hole there. She isn't planning on getting a replacement. I think that I have also heard that you can leave it and bleach it back to a white color.

Anonymous said...

Well, I chipped one of my front teeth when I was about 8yo or so. They filled in the chip back then, but last year when I went to the dentist, they said that I had an abscess that had been there for a really long time. I had to get a root canal, but it wasn't too bad. They did tell me that the tooth could eventually turn gray, but there are lots of ways to take care of it. My abscess wasn't painful -- apparently I had it for 20 years!! But . . . if I were you I think I would have it extracted, just to be on the safe side since he is so little . . .

Kelly said...

Avah fell and hit her tooth on the kitchen table right before Christmas. I didn't think anything of it because it wasn't loose. About 2 weeks later it started to turn gray. I took her to the dentist and she said to watch it for 1 of 3 things: get an abscess, stay the same, or fade away like a bruise. Luckily, it wasn't dead. It got pretty dark gray for quite awhile, but just recently it has started to fade and you can hardly tell anymore. I definitely wouldn't do a root canal on a little one...I don't see the point! It's a hard decision...I hope he is okay.

Cara said...

If it's dead, I'd probably have it extracted. Too bad he's only 3 and it will be several years before he starts to loose teeth. I'd call the dentist tomorrow and get detailed options of what would happen after the extraction. Poor Luke!