McKaylie's teeth

McKaylie's teeth..........oh boy, McKaylie's teeth. She has had trouble with her teeth for several years. The dentist has told us that she has very soft, brittle teeth. (kind of sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it) She has been to the dentist more times than Myshel and Vance put together. No matter how much we brush and floss and care for them they still get cavitites very easily and the fillings don't like to stay in. (Thank heaven, for dental insurance!) We have a great dentist, though. He has fixed fillings and tried to help her front teeth look better sooooo many times and most of those times without any cost to us. We love Dr. Rosenblum, but we'd rather not have to see him as often. We were told that her permanent teeth would probably be stronger and we just needed to get through the baby teeth and things would get better. So, we were ecstatic that her first tooth was loose........finally we can start to get rid of these terrible little problems. We came to find out, however, that these little gems weren't going out without a fight! Even though, her tooth was loose, her permanent tooth wasn't waiting. It started coming in behind it. I gave her a week to work her tooth out, but she wouldn't try. She said it hurt too much and she wasn't about to let me touch it. So we went to the dentist this morning...............

We were told, that her permanent tooth is almost twice the size of her baby tooth (which was easy to see) and the other bottom tooth would be coming in soon and it would do the same thing, come in behind the baby tooth. So, the dentist decided that it would be in her best interest and to prevent more trips and shots later, that he should pull all 4, yes, that right 4, bottom teeth. That way the permanent front teeth would push their way forward and be somewhat straight. ( He didn't fail to mention that when the other two came in they'd be very crowded and that they'd start looking at braces around 9-10 years old, depending on how fast her permanent teeth come in.)

McKaylie spent the morning biting down on a gauze pad and the rest of the day taking motrin every 6 hours. She's been nibbling on soft foods from the side of her mouth and talking with a lisp, too. I bet wiggling that tooth out herself, doesn't seem so bad, now!

Here's McKaylie with her gauze pad.....not so happy!

A somewhat toothless smile! (The nice clean shirt is just a bonus!)

A little close up