Both the girls had dental check ups today. Rachel's was this morning, and Hannah's was this afternoon. After the outcome of Rachel's appointment, I must say I was anxious for Hannah's results. I was praying all afternoon that she'd have no cavities. A mother can only take so much humiliation in a day.
They did a few normal X-rays, and then they did a full facial xray, which was totally cool to see done, not to mention how amazing the films were to see afterwards. Hannah had to stand up, and then this machine circled her head a full 360 degrees taking a full xray of her teeth! Wow! 
She then the cleaning and vitamin foam and then the exam from the dentist. Overall, her check up was great. Dentist gave a few tips on getting a couple areas cleaned better, the usual 'you need to floss lecture', and then we talked about the Xrays. The dentist started going over Hannah's teeth on the Xray, showing me which were still baby teeth, and showing me the adult teeth coming in beneath.
As she continued with the full facial xray, she herself was surprised, and this is where I became totally overwhelmed, when she said Hannah was missing not one permanent tooth, not two permanent teeth, but Hannah is missing THREE permanent teeth!!!! There are no adult teeth in the spots where they should be. The dentist reassured me that surprisingly missing teeth is common, and they just work with it. Sometimes because there is no adult tooth pressing its way and pushing that baby tooth out, then a lot of times the baby tooth doesn't fall out. Sometimes with the help of braces, they just squish everything together and make it work. Sometimes, if the baby tooth does fall out and there is nothing there to replace it, then they insert an implant. But for now, we're going to take extra special care of those baby teeth that don't have adult ones. We'll be going back in a couple of months to have some sealant placed on the teeth that need it replaced.
The other concern was some bottom adult teeth that are coming up at an angle. There is the potential problem for them to push a tooth out of the way, etc, etc. Our dentist suggested that we see the Orthodontist, and have them take a look at the xray to see if it warrants any action sooner, rather than later, etc.
Overall, her check up was good. Hannah said her appointment was 'fun', not how I would describe a trip to the dentist, but I'm glad she enjoyed it and it didn't stress her out. So we'll be back in a May for sealant, and then back in 6 months for a cleaning.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Dental Check Up
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2 comments:
That's a good picture of the x-rays...wish I'd thought of doing that!
Which teeth is she missing?
Also, I don't know if your insurance covers ortho (ours doesn't), but I recently checked into our local school of dentistry and they offer ortho at a pretty good discount. Both our kids will probably need braces, so I am trying to plan ahead. ;)
She missing two on the top and one on the bottom. One of them is a molar in the back??
When I talked to Steven last night, he said he thinks our dental insurance has another branch we can apply for, which includes ortho.
We knew with Rachel, we'd be doing ortho down the road, and often have wondered if Hannah would need braces, now we know both girls will need ortho. LOL.
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