Late Thursday afternoon, William complained that his tooth hurt. I asked him to open his mouth and point to where he felt hurt, he pointed on the bottom right. I saw swollen gum so I thought that’s where it hurt.
I told him rinsing his mouth with salt water would help to sooth the swollen gum; and to my surprise, he was willing to try. I asked him to keep the salt water in his mouth until I counted to 20; and we needed to do it 3 times. I did it without any problem.
Later he seemed to feel hurt more, so I gave him some Motrin; that helped him to sleep easier. He woke up around mid night and complained about his tooth; it was more than 6 hours since I gave him Motrin so I gave him another 5ml; and 5ml Benadryl to help with his running nose. He felt asleep about 1 hour later.
Friday morning, he was still sleepy so I texted Mr. Castenada about his tooth and asked for excuse from class. “Toothache is no fun, let him rest” – replied Mr. C.
The whole Friday I’d give him Motrin every 6 hrs and had him rinse his mouth with salt water several times. I texted my good friend Nhi at the All Children Dental for appointment, we got one at 9:00 AM on Saturday. Knowing how he was so terrified on his first visit to the dentist about a year back, I primed him that we needed to see the dentist to check on his pain. “No pulling tooth?” – He asked. “No, the dentist will just check to see why your tooth is hurt” – I assured him. I also primed him that they’d need to take the X-ray so that he needs to sit still while doing the X-ray.
Saturday morning, he woke up early around 7:30 AM. I gave him some milk and cereal for breakfast before we headed to the dental office. We arrived around 8:30 AM, he did not seem to be scared at all, I’m glad.
After filling out the forms and waiting for 10 minutes, they called his name. They asked me to wait in the waiting area but I told the dental assistant that she would need my help because he would not sit still; so she let me in with him
She took him to the x-ray machine; to my surprise, he sit still and listened and did what the lady told him to do. Two year ago I had to sit on the X-ray chair and hold him! My little boy is growing up and starting to understand things.
After the X-ray, he was asked to sit on the chair and wait for the dentist. He jumped on it with some enthusiasm. I primed him that the doctor would need to see his teeth so he need to lie down still and open his mouth. He nodded. The assistant came to clean his teeth. As soon as he saw she picked up the cleaning tool, he jumped off the chair so quickly and stood next to the wall! Finally I had to hold him and lie down on the chair for the lady to clean his tooth. It was a quick clean for about 2 minutes.
We were told to wait for the doctor; so I got off the chair and let him sit there by himself. I reminded him again that the dentist will need to check his teeth so he needs to lie down still and do not move his head. But then when he saw the doctor apply some cream on his teeth, he jumped off the chair again and spit out on the floor! One more time I had to hold him lying down so that the doctor could exam his teeth.
“We need to pull out this tooth!” – the doctor said. Later when we got home, I realized that it’s the tooth that had the root canal 2 years back! Why he has pain on the root canal tooth and that we have to pull it out? Does that mean the root canal failed? I felt so sad that William has to go thru this for the tooth that is NOT supposed to hurt if the doctor did a good job on the root canal. The root canal procedure was supposed to save the tooth, but it did not! He went thru that traumatized experience 2 years ago for nothing!
Doctor Vo said to make appointment for pulling the tooth. I told her we’d call to make the appointment, so for now please prescribe him some antibiotics to help with the infection. So she did! ( She was not gonna prescribe anything until I asked).
William left the office feeling happy I think (no teeth was pulling out as I promised him). We stopped by the SaiGon pharmacy to get his antibiotics medicine right after leaving the dental office.
We got him, gave him some lunch and we started the antibiotics and continue with Motrin because he still felt hurt. He said the pink medicine does not taste good at all and that he hated it. He said last time we had white medicine which tasted better. I do not remember what was the color of the antibiotics last time but he kept saying it was white!
After 3 days with antibiotics, we finished 1 bottle, his pain is gone, so I stopped giving him antibiotics.
I was debating if I should make dental appointment for him for next Saturday or not; it’d be Memorial holiday weekend; We need to have him start on the ADHD medicine that Ms. Elyse prescribed for him; she said that would give him headache and tummy ache for about 3 days so we should start on the weekend, which means this Memorial weekend is perfect to start. If we don’t, then we’d have to wait till the next weekend. This is the 2nd weekend after her prescription so I don’t think we should not delay further. Thus, I decided not to make that dental appointment; and that we’d start on the ADHD medicine instead.
He’s no longer feel pain on his bad teeth, last time I checked. “My tooth feels better now!” – He said.