Teeth stabilized

Says L's dentist.

Huh?? Said I ...

He checked L's teeth and xrays. The 2 teeth that have huge cavities are lodged firmly in the gum, the xrays show healthy bone beneath the root. One tooth, about 30% of the tooth has fallen away leaving behind an incomplete white tooth, xrays show that the nerve has pulled away from the surface. The dentist said that is nature's way of protecting the tooth.

We compared xrays from last year to this year. Dentist said that there looks like minor progression, however, xrays are not accurate at that level of detail, so he was going more on how the tooth and gum looked visually and in the xray.

He said - goodbye ... you are doing great.

I sat there blinking.

His other teeth are doing great. Permanent teeth look fabulously healthy - strong white enamel.

I am still cautiously optimistic. We are still on the diet for the most part, although I let him have grain now and then. At home we still have bone broth every day and fish oil most days. I have sprouted or fermented stuff for him and limit pasta. I kind of made a lifestyle change for him and me and now it is not a struggle to eat grain free for the most part.

I know I will have won the battle when those teeth fall out and are replaced by the adult teeth .. until then I know that I might need to pay the piper any day ...

I will post xrays of his teeth when I get them.

L ate rice crispies at school last week and since then has been complaining of pain. Our 6 month well visit is scheduled for June 16 - not sure I can hold out until then. L complains only when I floss or brush that tooth .... gums are not swollen, he is eating and sleeping just fine .. all the same, I am not used to him complaining when I floss so am worried ...

We have continued with grain free food, fish oil, bone broth at home .. at school he gets normal food and he loves candy which we give him once a week ..

dont know if I am losing this battle ....

Dejection and worry :(

Xrays of the front teeth

Xray of the lower jaw showing the permament teeth under his gum line .. see how they have dissolved the roots of the teeth next to the incisors ...

Here is the xray of the top jaw ... where is the space for these huge permanent teeth in his little 5 yr old face????? the front teeth should start shaking soon as the roots are almost totally dissolved by the permanent teeth ...

He is over the hump ... said the dentist :)

Our dentist visit today was extremely positive.

The hygenist who cleaned his teeth said that the decay looked black - she said that she could not see brown any more - which is very positive. Black is arrested decay, brown is active decay.

The teeth in which the black decay fell out were ruled as totally arrested by the dentist. No soft spots, enamel hard and no active decay.

The big root canal molar, the one on his lower left had a lot of arrested decay. The dentist said that he could see some decay activity but far more arrested decay than active - he said "keep doing what you are doing and he will sail into his adult teeth with no issues"

He also said that L's adult teeth looked "fabulous". He said that the enamel was shiny and hard and very strong..

He said that there was no need for xrays of the molars as he saw no cause for concern any more! He said that if L had pain, to rush to his office, but he said that he did not think L would have pain now if he  made it this far.

He took xrays of the front teeth, his 2 lower teeth on either side of the incisors are in and have dissolved the roots of his baby teeth making them shake a little - just this morning L told me that his teeth were shaking.

His top permanent teeth have queued up behind the baby teeth and are ready to come down.

The 6 year molars are in on the top as I saw last week and yesterday. Dr S said that once they came in and meshed with the lower teeth, we could easily extract the trouble molars if necessary with no need for place holders. He said that we are almost there .. another few months and we can afford to lose the baby molars, but he did not think we would need that ...

Sigh ....

The visit was a lot more positive than I expected. The only thing that could have made it better was if we took the xrays today and compared it with those of June, but Dr S was so positive, and L has had xrays in March and June, I did not insist.

Onwards we go with bone broth and fish oil ... I have relaxed my no grain rule with him some ... but for the most part, I avoid grain like the plague .. nutritionally we are doing SO much better since having stopped grain  ....

I do have to plan meals ahead of time and can no longer fall back on boiling pasta for dinner ... but I'm happy to do anything to ensure his health ...

Dentist visit today

3 hours to go until we leave for Dr S's office ...

Dec 10 was a year since our diagnosis of 4 root canals. We made it through a year with no pain, no fillings, no drilling ...

I am so nervous about the visit today.

Some of L's decayed teeth have lost the black decay, leaving behind an incomplete tooth, a cute little perfectly white incomplete tooth.

The only tooth that is not totally white is the tooth that the dentists all said was the deepest root canal ... this tooth still has some shadows on it but L never complains of pain and the shadows have remained the same ...

Fingers crossed .. I dont think Dr S will give us a clean bill of health as I dont think the xrays can tell us that all is good with the biggest root canal. He did say that the right side had arrested in June ... so perhaps, maybe, we can get the same diagnosis for the left?

I am nervous ....

We still do grain free meals at home, bone broth daily, fish oil and probiotics, raw milk and a flouride tablet - this is from Norway .. this is what all of L's cousins do in Norway so we started him on it earlier this year ... I dont know what to think about it ..

On another note, L now has SIX .. YES, THATS RIGHT ... S*I*X permanent teeth ... I saw half of the right back molar peeping through his gums yesterday .. I had my eye on the left one which started coming down 2 weeks ago when suddenly I realised .. whoa!!! the other side is further along!!!!

So, once these guys come down, they will lock the lower molars and keep them from sliding in his jaw if we need to extract the tooth with the huge cavity ...

I have my fingers crossed that no action will be required other than watching for pain ...

No news is good news

Well .. L and A flew to Norway on 6/28. L continued to complain of tummy trouble and threw up on A on the 7hr flight into AMS. In Norway, he continued to complain of joint pain and tummy pain .. some days worse than others ... but no more complaints of head or tooth pain ..

A is continuing his diet the best he can without me. He found sprouted wheat bread and to the best of my knowledge is continuing the fish oil. I have no idea if he is doing the bone broth.

I dont ask ...

I would rather not know .. I cant control anything from here ...

I take it 1 day at a time and 1 meal at a time ...

The good news is that the 6 yr teeth are in and once the top one comes in, the meshing between the two will keep them from drifting in the jaw. This reduces the importance of the other baby teeth as place holders ...

Sigh ...

Am I losing sight of the forest for the trees?

The xray showed that the top teeth seem to have stagnated, in that the decay seems to have stopped but the lower teeth seem to have gotten worse but the dentist was not sure as the xray angle was slightly different than the last time. L was also complaining of stomach ache so the dentist thought that perhaps the headache and stomach ache were a related non-tooth issue. Well the stomach ache continued and I began to worry about appendicitis so off we went the next day to the ped. Turns out he had a virus which causes head, stomach and body ache. He stopped complaining about his teeth so he flew to Norway yesterday .. we are not sure if the teeth are still bothering him or not … but other than sedation and drilling, no way to tell. A and I both decided against an emergency sedation drilling the day before he was due to fly to Norway. Issue is now if he starts having pain in Norway, we have to fly back or have his teeth drilled or pulled there ..

Last night as I ate dinner alone, for the first time since this crazy tooth drama started, I felt no pressure about grain free bullshit … I ate my sweet potato and squash and hummus quietly .. it was amazing not having to get L to eat grain free food .... to not have the struggle ... to be able to eat in peace and quiet ....

and I have been wondering if I am doing this all wrong .. the amount of pressure I have put on us all to follow L’s diet (A does not and will not so L sees A eating GF bagels and cries for it) … I am beginning to feel it is not worth it .. I have to fight L and A to keep him on the diet … I am tired of fighting alone ..

I am sad that I have to say no to him so much and I have to push his bone broth smoothie on him so much …

For today, I am leaning towards throwing the towel in, stopping it all, scheduling the sedation and going for it all, root canals, caps and everything …

I don’t want to fight anymore …

I am not sure if I am creating behavioural issues in L with the frustration he feels when he is denied pizza and bread ...

In the grand scheme of things, is this worth it? His childhood is so short and so precious .... What am I doing?

I would curl into a ball and cry, but crying is a waste of time and energy ... 

Here is the xray from last week:

Here is the xray from March:

A made an animation gif that compares the two xrays. you can see the angle is slightly different between the two xrays.