Dentistry

Allie approached me last week and complained that one of her teeth hurt.  A few years ago, she had a tooth infection in one of her baby teeth.  When I checked out her sore tooth, I noticed that there was a white protrusion coming out of her gums above the previously infected baby tooth.  It looked like a new tooth was trying to get through and the baby tooth underneath wasn't loose yet.

I scheduled a dental appointment and she went yesterday.  The white protrusion was the root of her tooth.  She has another infection in that tooth.  No cavities, but another infection.  She is on antibiotics for the next week and a half, then she will go in for a tooth extraction.  Allie is nervous about the extraction.  I'm hoping that she has a good experience.  Mike will be taking her, because I have had many bad experiences at the dental office and I don't want my dislike to affect her.

Poor baby.  She is so good about brushing her teeth thoroughly and consistently, that it doesn't seem fair to have so many problems.

Do It Yourself Dentistry

This is major confession time. No, we are not bad parents, nor do we avoid dentists and doctors normally. We do live on a budget and don't have a lot of extra for out-of-pocket dental bills.

When Amy was in late elementary and junior high, she was getting more of her adult teeth. Unfortunately, her baby teeth were not coming out. The permanent teeth were coming in behind the baby teeth. Our dentist charged over $60 to pull a baby tooth. We didn't have any dental coverage at the time and my friend, who is a pediatrician, showed us how to remove baby teeth ourselves. Amy had two weeks to work on loosening her baby teeth and then we tied string around the tooth and pulled it. There is a definite trick in regards to the angle necessary to remove the teeth. Amy wasn't thrilled, but did appreciate the $10 we paid her for each extraction. This was in the early 90s, so $10 went pretty far.

Last January, I had a retreat on a root canal on a tooth with a crown. Our insurance only pays a small portion on a crown, so we have invested heavily in this molar. The specialist who did the retreat used up $200 of my dental benefits from last year and ALL of this years benefits. The retreat did not include putting a filling in the crown. I've been trying to not eat with that tooth, but eventually the temporary filling wore away. About 3 months ago, the crown started falling out. I have been able to put the tooth back in position, but eventually it would fall out again.

Yesterday, the tooth kept falling out. I considered just having the tooth stump in place, but feared that the shape of my gums and position of my other teeth would change, thus rendering the crown unusable. I was tossing around ideas on ways to keep the tooth in place. Wax would probably melt, clay could possible be toxic or damage the crown, tape wouldn't stick. Amy got on the internet and looked for possible treatments. Hurray! There is a product that is used for temporary fillings. This afternoon, I reattached the crown and filled the hole in it. All for $5. It was an easy repair and I feel much more confident knowing that my tooth won't fall out at any moment.

Next time, I'm going to check the internet for possible solutions immediately.

New Tooth

We finally got Steve's tooth repaired. This is the tooth that was broken while he was playing air soft back in November. The tooth looks really good. Steve isn't happy with the taste, but that was gone in a few hours. He needs to go back one more time to get the metal post (inserted in the tooth to hold the new portion in place) replaced with one using a different material. The new post will not create a dark shadow in the tooth.

The repair of this tooth ended up being much more involved that we had originally expected. He had the initial repair, a root canal, a temporary cap, the current cap, and a final repair in two weeks. The final cost will probably be around $2500, most of it not covered by our dental insurance. And he asks why we won't pay for his driver's training class this summer.

Kids Activities

Katie and Stephen have joined a robotics team. The team has 6 or 8 weeks (I don't remember which) to build a robot. The robot needs to be programed to do various tasks. After it's completed, the team will go to various activities to compete with other robotics teams. The kids are really excited to be a part of this group.

The team is very generously sponsored by Stryker. Steve decided to join the team in October and has received rides to most of the activities from friends. Katie joined 3 days ago. When Steve joined, I explained that we were doing extensive remodeling on a home that we would be moving into in January. Steve decided to be part of the web design group because he would be able to do a lot of the work at home and wouldn't need to spend as much time at Stryker.

Katie joined the programming group. She will need to be at Stryker a lot. Saturday was the team kick-off in Grand Rapids. Sunday there was a meeting at Stryker (which no one told us about) and Monday there is another meeting at Stryker. I'm going to need to do some serious schedule adjusting. An adult babysitter will need to be located for some of these meetings. Joe is very good with Paige and Allie, but I'm uncomfortable leaving him in charge for long periods of time when Mike and I are both out of town.

I'm really glad that the kids have this opportunity. Stryker is providing mentors in programing, web design, marketing, and engineering. The kids will have the opportunity of working with these talented people and learning marketable skills from them. Robotics will help keep my high school students in touch with some of their friends on a day-to-day basis in the midst of the moving to a new area.

***Correction***

Steve did know about the meeting on Monday, but didn't tell me about it. He is having a lot of pain from his chipped tooth and went to bed without talking to me. We called the dentist's emergency line Saturday night and still haven't heard back from him. The office is closed on Mondays. Four of the kids are scheduled for cleanings on Wednesday. We may turn a couple of cleaning/check-ups into an appointment for Steve. I will be so glad when we move and change dentists!