Hannah was put completely under anesthesia at age 3 to have some issues with her teeth taken care of. She had 6 caps and several other tooth-colored fillings done. IT. WAS. AWFUL.
I'll never forget the devastation and incredible guilt I felt when we found out exactly what was going on in her mouth. It was a huge blow. We brushed twice a day. We let her do it on her own in the morning and we would make sure she had a thorough night brushing. She has never had excessive amounts of sugar (although, the girl does love cake and cookies...she is mine after all)! We thought we were doing it right and were on top of things. Apparently, we were wrong.
The dentist we saw was incredibly comforting. He assured us this was probably nothing we could have prevented. She has super soft baby teeth and according to him, it was bound to happen. Several of his own kids had the same issue.
Still. There was that guilt.
Especially on the day she got everything corrected.
We walked in to the office first thing in the morning. Since she was so young, she was first on the list. The anesthesiologist came out, gave her a shot that was supposed to knock her completely loopy and sat with us for about 10 minutes. Hannah was still begging to go home and seemed aware, but at the same time was completely out of it. Like she was a more than drunk 18-year-old at their first college party. That was terrifying for a me to see as a parent. I was starting to panic watching her unsual behavior and inability to focus. It was very unnerving.
He asked if I wanted him to give her more because he had never seen a kid fight it like Hannah was fighting it. I immediately told him NO and to take her back to see how it went. Turns out, even though she was answering our questions and forming complete thoughts, she was definitely out of it. He didn't bring her back to me, but got her all the way under without a fight.
It took them over an hour to correct everything. When it was over, they wanted me to be the only one with her as she woke up to make it "easier". I spent 20 minutes in a room alone with her wrestling to keep her safe as she very angrily came out of her anesthesia. Anyone ever fought to hold and keep a 40-lb kid safe as they came out of anesthesia? It was not fun. I was also 8 weeks pregnant with Logan at the time and was terrified that she was going to (very unintentionally) kick me right in the stomach. Luckily, we all came out unharmed, but completley exhausted. They sent us home before she could even stand up on her own.
We always tell her how lucky she is to have special shiny teeth. Parenthood lie number...I'm not even sure what number this was. It's not a big deal and we didn't want her to feel different, so we tried to make it seem fun. She didn't really buy it.
It was a rough afternoon. Hours later, she tried to walk for the first time. It was very unsuccessful. I had to hold her under the armpits to keep her on her feet. She finally came out of it, but I vowed to never see one of my kids look like that for teeth again.
The next month was a nightmare of her screaming in pain every time we brushed. The toothbrush came out bloody every time. We saw 3 different dentists. It was the third dentist who (while still not locating the problem) sat us down and showed us how to properly brush. This didn't fix the problem (as she had cement from her work left in her mouth at the gum line causing the irritation...we found this out 2 months later at a routine dentist visit), but it did help with the pain and bleeding.
He showed me how to lay her head down in my lap to have the best view of all of her teeth.
It's also super easy to pull the cheeks gently back to really get a good angle on those back teeth from here, which I couldn't do successfully here since I don't have a third hand to hold the camera.
He explained that scrubbing with the toothbrush did nothing but spread the food around. He showed how to do VERY gentle circles to get the food out because that is what the brushes were designed for. We had a happy camper again! Seriously! No pressure needed on those sweet little teeth! I always thought that was the way to get teeth squeeky clean. I was wrong!
Love this sweet smile!
She also has a very sensitive gag reflex. Telling her to open her mouth as wide as she can while I get those back teeth has alleviated this particular problem. We still implement this method for brushing those pesky molars.
We sing songs as we brush, as well. That makes her more involved in the nightly brushing and helps time go faster.
She is in charge of her own morning brushing. She does a great job and accepts guidance without a fight. She's a pretty awesome little lady!
Sometimes you are just born with good teeth genes. Hannah happened to not be. I hadn't gone to the dentist in an embarrassing number of months (Ok, fine. Years.) and neither had Heath. After we moved to Santa Fe, we decided it was time for us to get on the tooth exam train that we forced the kids to be on. I literally flossed the day I went to the dentist...for the first time in several years. Heath had been flossing every day for a long time. The denist told him to floss daily since he clearly wasn't doing that. I was told to keep up whatever I was doing because my teeth were in great shape and had obviously been flossed regularly. I was happy. Heath....not so much.
Win on happy teeth genes. Fail on realizing my kids might not be so lucky! Now I know, though! The other two Lynch babies have passed their dental exams with flying colors...so far.
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