Master of Science, and the tooth saga

It's official! I now have my master's degree.

The tooth saga:
Saturday evening the boys and I were hanging out at my friend Khadijah's house, and playing with her boys. Chris was wrestling and being wild with Dijah's 9 year old son Daniel while she and I made dinner. One second he was laughing and then I heard him screaming and he was dripping blood out of his mouth. He jumped off the chair and landed on the coffee table face-first, according to Daniel. He must have hit so that he landed on a corner because he smashed his upper left incisor and it went right through his lower lip. He wasn't able to eat for 36 hours afterward because of the lip and tooth and swollen gums. The urgent care doc gave him Tylenol with codeine, which made him throw up

So we've been to the dentist three times now since then. Two dentists, actually, our usual one and a pediatric specialist. The tooth is intruded, but we finally got an x-ray today and it doesn't appear to have caused any damage. Definitely no severe damage, and definitely not a broken jaw. The tooth went straight in, not at an angle, which is the best case for intrusion since it stays nice and tight in the socket. So what the pediatric dentist thinks will happen is that the tooth will, over the next 1-3 months, re-erupt and come back nearly into the same place. Maybe a millimeter off from the other tooth. Right now there's about 3 mm difference. Worst case scenario is that he damaged the nerve and they do a pulpectomy (a "baby root canal") and the tooth is basically dead and will probably be gray. But it's a baby tooth so it's not that big a deal. We have to wait and see what happens, but the peds dentist didn't think that was likely.

It *may* have done a tiny bit of damage to his permanent tooth also, but we won't know until he's 6-7 and it comes down. If he did, it's probably a discoloration or a dimple. Nothing too major really. We go back in a month to check it again, and if he develops an unexplained fever or any pain I have to take him back in sooner (because it would mean the root is infected). But it looks like he lucked out on this one. I think it's going to be all right. The tooth already looks like it's coming back down since I got a really good look at it Sunday morning, and the gum tissue is MUCH better and less swollen now. The regular dentist said that if the gum tissue died it would have to be removed, but it looks like that won't be an issue. He's been eating normally since Monday afternoon, even foods that require tearing with the front teeth.

The pediatric specialist apparently sees a lot of trauma cases and thanked me for not being a "hysterical, hyperactive mom" about it He was really nice. I think I might start taking the boys there now. Not that I don't totally love our regular dentist too.