Abscessed

On Sunday evening, JT reported that he had a sore spot in his mouth which made it uncomfortable for him to chew.  I looked inside his cavernous yaw, saw nothing to worry me (please note, I'm not a dental professional, a fact about to be made abundantly clear), and sent him on his way with an ibuprofen and instructions to floss his teeth more carefully.

On Monday night, still in some discomfort, he reported that the tooth had been hurting since Saturday.  This news, of course, arrived at 9 pm.  So we repeated the floss and ibuprofen drill, went to bed, and hoped for the best.

Tuesday morning, I asked him how his mouth felt.  But it was rather a moot question since his swollen chipmunk-style left cheek said it all.  Anyone up for a mid-day emergency dental visit?

By 11:30 am, the diagnosis was clear: two abscessed teeth on the left side of his mouth.  The remedy was equally clear, if a little upsetting: removal of the troubled teeth, plus a matching tooth on the other side of his mouth to preserve his bite.  All three teeth were babies scheduled for eviction anyway.  Dr. C just helped them to move out early.

Post-removal, JT took the afternoon off.  He nursed a large chocolate milkshake and played video games in the back of my classroom while I taught two of my American Government classes. 

The teeth went under the pillow last night.  Extracted teeth are much more valuable then teeth which fall out on their own, so the Tooth Fairy paid premium dollar for his ivories.  In fact, at this rate I think that I can look for a few more teeth being forcibly removed.