New Smiles!

We've been through our first cavity filling experiences with the girls. Ella's was last week. They got her laying down and within 2 minutes they were done!! Ella did great, especially since I opted not to give her laughing gas. (After I realized it only took two minutes, I was glad I made that decision!) The only thing she didn't like was having her mouth propped open. She had one tooth filled and hopefully we can keep it at that from now on!

Emily is a different story, though. Poor child has been neglected, not having checkups every 6 months. So unfortunately she had 5 cavities and needed a baby root canal and a crown. She had to have IV sedation, so I had Steve take the afternoon off to be with me and Emily during the ordeal. Ella was pleased as punch to get to go to a babysitter! Emily had to be fasting, so she had a tough day being hungry. The anesthesiologist gave her the first shot in the waiting room. She was on Steve's lap and I was trying to distract her with picking a prize. Everyone for miles around knew it when the shot when in. Then I read her a story while she drifted off to la-la land. It was so weird to see her "with the lights on, but nobody home." Her eyes glazed over and she just stared at the book. Then the anesthesiologist carried her to the back where they gave her the IV and did the dental work. It took about 1/2 hour. Then they brought us all into another room and we waited until she woke up. It took her about 45 minutes to get fully aware. She was very dizzy and kept saying she wanted to feel like herself. I was asking her about what she remembered and she remembered the shot and the first part of the story. She didn't remember the end of the story or anything else. After she was able to hold her head up by herself, Steve carried her to the car. She had a hard evening, but luckily no side effects. I gave her Tylenol all the next day and then she was fine. The first time she noticed her silver crown, she was very sad. I tried to tell her how special it was, and I think she eventually accepted it. Luckily it's just a baby tooth. It's hard to see your kids go through tough things, so I'm glad we've had pretty good health. We're being very careful with brushing and taking good care of their teeth.