Dental Doom and Gloom

The kids had their usual six month check up today at the dentist. A lot has happened to Ethan in six months. He has two permanent teeth on the bottom, a new one coming in on the top, another missing tooth on the bottom and a few six year molars that have come in as well. The kid's mouth is not the prettiest thing to currently look at. :) Poor little Emily might lose her first tooth by the time she is 21. Ha-ha! Well, amazingly enough, my sensory boy actually handled sitting in that dental chair better than Emily. I was pretty shocked and amazed. Emily had a few tears because of nerves, but she did okay and had her teeth polished up nice and pretty. I was mighty proud of Ethan. He was so brave and handled everything so well, especially because they had to do a little extra poking around in his mouth, too. You see, I found out some very upsetting news today at the dental office. Ethan's new six year molars that are coming in, well, they are not normal. The enamel is very discolored and very thin. Luckily, the roots look okay according to the x-rays. The dentist told me that his teeth aren't like this from anything that we are doing or not doing. More likely than not, they are like this from the medication that he has had to take for his lungs. The amount of steroids, inhaled and oral steroids, can have a negative impact on tooth enamel. He said that for right now we are just going to watch those teeth and not do anything, but that we have to be very vigilant about brushing back there because it will be very easy for him to get cavities and decay. He said that although we are just watching them now, he will most likely require a crown on them in the future. Gosh I hated to hear that my six year old who has his brand new molars will already be needing crown on them before too long. It just makes me sad! The day got a little gloomier as Emily had a sudden headache episode right as we were heading out of the dentist office. I had to make her ride home with a throw up bag in her lap. And to cap off the day's gloominess, just like so many millions of others in this nation, we will also now feel the pinch in this economy as Rob's company is cutting back their employee's hours. It stinks, but at least he has a job!