A Crucial Tooth…

Yesterday my baby (19 months) was running down the driveway and took a spill.  He started crying pretty hard…the kind where there’s a pause before the scream so you know it really hurt.  And then when I picked him up, his poor sweet mouth was gushing blood….gushing.

I’m not new to little boys getting busted lips and bleeding, but I’d by lying to say that it doesn’t freak me out to see my baby’s mouth gushing blood.  Especially when upon inspection, I notice that his front tooth is chipped…majorly.  I’ve done a great service to the entire practice of dentistry and drawn a very professional looking picture for you all to see what happened.  The chipped off part is highlighted in red.

We were lucky to get in to see the pediatric dentist this afternoon (which was especially awesome since the incident happened at about 12:45.)  The more chipped tooth is obvious as you can see.  It also turns out that both of his front teeth are loose (which the dentist assures me will rectify itself in a couple of days because they aren’t severely loose.)  So, one tooth is definitely chipped but is probably going to be fine.   The dentist said that the worst case scenario, because of the trauma of the bump, the tooth could turn gray.   (Which my vanity will not be having ya’ll…and should it happen, we’ll be fixing it to look white.  I don’t care if it is a baby tooth, it’s his MOUTH people!  The poor child already had people talking ugly about him having crossed eyes. We didn’t just pay to have the eyes fixed just to move on to the mouth!)

The other tooth though is a different story. It is what the dentist called a complex fracture because it is probably 1/4 of the tooth and due to the way it broke, it exposed the root within the tooth. He said that our 2 options (neither being ideal) is to extract the tooth (which I don’t want to do on a 19 month old who will then have the next 6 years of his life without a crucial front tooth) or to do a baby root canal and crown which I at this time have scheduled for Friday morning at 7:45.

It ain’t cheap people!  What the heck?!  Who, that hasn’t completed dental school, even knew that a 1-year-old could have a root canal on a tooth he hasn’t even had for a full year?!  And the part that really gets me fired up about the whole thing is that our insurance doesn’t cover sedation because they don’t “deem it necessary for the procedure.”  Sometimes I really want to get a giant sign to hold in the air that says….

Sorry if you’re offended.  That’s what I really think sometimes.  I’m not perfect and I really do wonder what on earth people are thinking sometimes…in a super emphasized way.  You get the point.

Seriously though.  Who in their right mind thinks that a 1-year-old could have a procedure like a ROOT CANAL done without being sedated?!  Are you kidding me?  I can’t get the kid to sit still for 5 minutes of Bob the Builder, so I’m pretty sure a root canal in a dental chair isn’t going to be the thing that brings about calm and peace for him to just lie perfectly still and hold his mouth open?!  Needless to say, our awesome pediatric dentist typed up a note for me to dispute the insurance company on it and even added a hand written part in case the insurance company needs to call for further explanation.  I’ll be making that phone call to our healthcare provider in the morning.  So annoying!  That denied portion of the procedure costs HALF of the total amount.  As if the situation of a 1-year-old having a root canal isn’t bad enough on its own?!

Ok…calming down now.  Promise.

Here’s the good news.  And I’m gonna stop worrying about all of this now too because I’ve got a promise that I don’t need to worry…

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?… So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” – Matt 6: 25-27. 34

And yes…I did just post a sort of crass sign and quote scripture in the same post.  And while I don’t think that Jesus probably ever said “WTF”, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t spewing butterflies when he overturned the tables of the tax collectors in the temple.  It’s ok to be mad sometimes…just maintaining perspective is the key I guess.  Besides, I promised you all I’d always be me…so there you have it.  Me….un-cut…honest…and still trusting in the One who loves me even when I get raging mad or overly worried.

** I’m adding this little ditty here after I spoke with the insurance company this morning.  They have agreed to pay a portion of the sedation that falls within the parameters of our plan.  It’s not all, but it is about 70%…better than nothing.