The other night Kay was sitting next to me on the couch playing with a Duplo block. Or to be more exact, she was mouthing a block. I noticed she had it in her mouth and did the quick “Is it chokable?” calculations in my head. It was too big to swallow, wasn’t going to break, so I let it go. A few seconds later Kay yelped and grabbed at her teeth. I looked in her mouth and saw that she’d chipped one of her bottom teeth. Huge mommy fail!
Ack! I felt so bad that Kay broke her tooth on my watch. I never would have thought she could chip a tooth that way. It’s not like she fell down or got hit in the mouth. I don’t think she was even chomping on the block that hard! But when I took her to see our local pediatric dentist and said she’d chipped her tooth biting on a toy, the dentist immediately asked, “Was it a Lego?” So apparently this is not an uncommon dental injury. Wish I’d known this before!
The dentist took a look at Kay’s tooth and assured me it was a very minor chip and there weren’t any sharp edges or additional cracks. She didn’t even see the need to file the edge down. Thankfully it’s one of her bottom teeth. Unless you pull down the lip you can’t even see it. I do need to keep an eye on it for any discolouration in the next few weeks which could indicate nerve damage, but that’s pretty unlikely considering how minor the chip is.
I was surprised and impressed by how well Kay tolerated having her mouth examined. I’m used to cajoling and bribing Tee just to open her mouth for the dentist, so I was totally amazed by how cooperative Kay was. The dentist remarked that she was the most cooperative toddler they’d seen all day. Kay seemed to like the dentist and hygienist, and smiled through the whole visit. (She got an Elmo sticker for being such a great patient, and that’s when she learned to say “Eh-mo” for the first time.) I really hope this positive attitude carries through to her next dental checkup.
Have your kids ever chipped a tooth? How do they handle visits to the dentist?
My granddaughter fell and chipped her tooth on the headboard
Ouch!
Don’t think any of them ever chipped a tooth. Our dentist was really good with the kids. When my husband and I went to the dentist, the kids came along. The dentist would let them sit in the chair and give them a ride in the chair long before they got their teeth checked. He gradually got them used to the experience and eventually getting their teeth checked. Going to the dentist was never an issue.
Sounds like you had a wonderful dentist! My kids like the chair rides too. 🙂
Keep an eye on that tooth! Don’t want to scare you, but we are having a lot of problems now because of the chipped tooth. When my son started to complain on the tooth ache a year ago 3 dentists found nothing, so one of them suggested that that tooth is still growing and causes that pain from time to time (“just give Tylenol”). We lived with that all this time until about a month ago the pain came more often and we discovered growing ” something” on his gum under that tooth. The biopsy showed an infection and the tooth looks dark on the xray. How did the infection got there? the 4th dentist we are seeing – said through the chip. And that chips are very common with baby teeth. Now we are facing an extraction which is the whole lot of a problem on it’s own, because, apparently, non of their anesthetization methods is painless unless it’s full sleep (?!) And that’s the only suggestion we’ve heard so far… wrecking our brains trying to find the golden middle now.
Oh, I’m so sorry your little one is going through this! I really hope you can find the best option to treat his tooth with minimal pain. Thanks for the heads up; I’ll definitely keep a close eye on her tooth.
Don’r be so hard on yourself. I had an older child stick a pen up her nose and the top part remained up her nose where I couldn’t see it. took our doctor to remove it.]
I was lucky with their teeth. –Just the usual annual visits for checkups and fillings, etc. Some were brave and some were not so the latter were allowed to go in first before thy totally lost their cool.
Thanks, Elva! Nothing stuck up the nose yet (fingers crossed)!
Ouch! Who knew that legos were so dangerous? My son chipped his tooth at a year- he was playing on the coffee table and fell. Poor kid- so far he hasn’t had problems and i hope he doesn’t!
Aw, poor little guy. Glad things seem to be okay!