Maddox's New Smile
If you know Maddox in real life, his brand new smile comes with zero shock and you almost wonder how those front teeth have remained inside his head this long. Maddox is filled with life, happiness, excitement and wonder, and his body movements represent that to a tee.
About a year and a half ago, my family was out visiting us here in Calgary, so my dad and I decided to leave the kids and go get some food to feed the household. I will never forget the feeling of receiving the phone call that M had fallen and I needed to get back immediately. Have you ever received one of those phone calls? Thankfully it was just a tooth and not a broken bone or worse, but that feeling of emergency and guilt of not being there to comfort him just took over me. Thankfully we were just less than 10 minutes away, but I remember like it was yesterday arriving home and watching my mom carry him to me, not crying, but covered in blood. I tried to see if the tooth was there, but leaving out all gory details, you couldn’t see much in there.
We had x-rays done, the tooth was looked at, and the tooth was still there, but knocked right back up into his head! Did you know that kids gums are basically like foam, and the tooth THANKFULLY went totally straight and right back up where it came from! The root was fine and the dentist said it would take a few months, but the tooth would come right back down again and it DID!
Hubs raced home from work while my dad and I brought him to our local dentist, who immediately referred us as an emergency patient to our local pediatric dentist about 25 minutes from us. M, who should have been a freak show, just quietly sat like nothing had happened and the dentist was shocked! This little bruiser is one of the toughest kids I know, and has continued to be that way.
As we continue over the next year and a half, Maddox’s excitement for life has not decreased, and neither has his clumsy face-plants and head smashes. During the summer months, I’m not going to lie, I may have left his helmet on after he was done riding his bike to try and prevent any potential head smashes. He did however manage to smash his face in at least two major falls where he hit his tooth again, which just made my heart sink to my stomach.
About two weeks ago, we noticed a sore on M’s gum right above the previous smashed in tooth, and after a few days of it not going away, we brought him back to the pediatric dentist where we learned it was infected. The continual trauma had eroded the root, got infected and needed to be extracted.
Long story short, we took ten days to give him antibiotics which he loved a bit too much, and Hubs braved the appointment of the tooth extraction. Meanwhile I shed a few tears at home for the tooth, and for my poor chunk who had to go through all of this. You guys - he was a CHAMP! He sat for the dentist, got a bit freaked about the freezing, but my three year old bruiser was a brave superhero in my books.
We will continue to rock the hockey player look until he is older, but I am so thankful the saga has come to an end and we don’t have to worry about it anymore. However, prayers for the other teeth are appreciated! I am so thankful for my fun loving, overly excited little toothless chunk.
