Dental Work = Ouch

So Madeline had all her dental work this morning. The process all went pretty smoothly. They put her under a non-intravenous conscious sedation. She was feeling really sleepy and couldn't keep her eyes open at times. The dentist and staff made her feel really comfortable, let her pick out a movie to watch during the whole procedure (there is a flat screen suspended from the ceiling above her), and put a blanket on her so she wouldn't be cold. It took nearly an hour for him to fill 3 cavities and crown another. When he was almost done with those and getting ready for the extraction, he was called out of the room and gone for nearly 10 minutes. When he returned and was finishing up on the tooth he was going to crown, Madeline came to a little and expressed she could feel some pain. He apologized and gave her some more Novocaine shots. He was concerned she was coming out of her sedation and contemplating on extracting the infected tooth at another appointment where she could be put under a different type of sedation and she wouldn't feel discomfort. He was finishing up the crown, when Madeline fell back asleep. He did a pain test on the gum near the tooth that needed to be extracted and she remained asleep. Since the extraction would take only 5 seconds I okayed him to go ahead and extract it now. He gave her more Novocaine and pulled it out! Madeline started moaning as he was tugging, but it was over in seconds. Poor baby girl. She wasn't traumatized or upset, so that's good.

Her stomach was a little upset when we were leaving the office and she was super groggy. When we got home she wanted to eat because she was real hungry (hadn't eaten since the day before) but she couldn't feel her mouth still. I tried to give her a bite of pudding but she had a hard time feeling and swallowing it. She laid down and took a 2 hour nap. When she woke she asked for something to eat again. Now she could feel her mouth again. So she ate a PB&J on soft bread and drank some milk. We had a knock on the door and it was our neighbor's son across the street, he made Madeline a get well card. He's really into baseball so he thought  he'd put the Red Sox score from last night inside the card to cheer Madeline up. So Sweet!

After her lunch she took another 2 hour nap. She doesn't seem to be in discomfort or pain. I gave her children's Tylenol at lunch and it seems to be doing the job. She asked the dentist if she could keep her tooth, so they put it in a tiny treasure chest for her. Boy I didn't realize how big the roots are on a baby molar tooth. The poor tooth did have a big cavity which caused that abscess infection in her gums. So now she's on the road to recovery - and praying no..more...cavities!