Carter's Bad Day

See his swollen face...let's back up 12 hours before this picture was taken.

The day before Thanksgiving I woke up and got ready for work. Carter kept coming in my room complaining about a canker sore. After repeatedly telling him there was nothing I could do about a canker sore...and an extremely sad face on his side...I decided to take a quick peak at it before leaving out the door.

To my surprise...the inside of his cheek was slightly swollen. (Something so minor I'm pretty sure unless you look in peoples mouths everyday...you wouldn't notice.) Being in the dental field...I immediately knew what that meant. But I still checked for a canker sore even though I knew I wouldn't find one. His tooth had absessed and the infection wasn't finding it's way out so it spread into his cheek and was swelling there. Most people get a little zit like pimple by the root of an absessed tooth so it drains. Not Carter. I was so scared his would spread into his neck and turn into something called cellulitis.

I called my brother immediately...he was on his way to work. I felt horrible because being the day before Thanksgiving Matt and I were supposed to get off work early at noon. But he already had a ton of emergencies...and was working until 3pm. In fact...he was overbooked. He didn't even hesitate to tell me to bring him with me. He saw Carter first thing and made all his other paying patients wait...isn't he the best brother ever! Poor Carter was in excruciating pain by then but loves my brother and thinks he's the best person ever for helping him...even during the process. No joke.

As I left work I told my brother I was concerned it would still turn into cellulitis even though he had opened up the tooth and relieved the pressure. He agreed it was something I had to keep my eye on.

After a few hours his swelling in his cheek was getting really bad and spreading down under his jaw. I was so nervous. I took him back to my brother before he left for home and we called the oral surgeons who were all closed. So my only hope was through Kaiser...our medical coverage. Upon seeing them, they told me they wouldn't open up the wound (meaning cut open his face) for 24 hours after the swelling had started. I wasn't sure how I felt about this. I didn't want Carter to have to be cut open...but I didn't want his infection to spread...nor did I want him in pain. Plus, I didn't really want to wait it out till Thanksgiving morning to take him into the ER to be cut open.

So, luckily the Doctor understood my concerns and gave him a high dose antibiotic shot to help jump start the healing process. Plus, he started him on a stronger dose of oral antibiotics.

Thankfully, the swelling didn't get worse...nor did Carter's pain. So we dealt with this swelling for 4 days and it finally went down.

And my brother was the best comfort in the world. He called me 3 times on Thanksgiving to check on Carter even though he had his wife's family in town. Plus, he borrowed stuff from a local Pedodontist to do the pulp cap (a baby tooth root canal) himself to help save us the money.

Definitely, not something I want to go through again. And it REALLY showed me how genetic teeth problems can be. I have no guilt on my part considering...I brush, floss and give my kids fluoride mouth rinse every night. We are not immune to dental problems even if I do everything preventative I can. Such is life.