All We Need For Christmas, is Kaelen's Two Front Teeth...

Never has that Christmas song made more sense to me than now. My baby's beautiful teeth are gone as a result of his attempt to do the waltz (or more like a Polka)with the kitchen chair. It is one of those "Would-A, Could-A, Should-A" moments for mommy but I try hard not to beat myself up. Accidents happen and I can't avoid all of them.

Kaelen's latest accident can cause long term side effects though, unlike his other minor scrapes and bruises. Paul took Kaelen to the Dentist Clinic at the Children's Hospital on Friday and saw Dr. Cholette, who happens to be the director of the clinic. After a thorough examination compiled with x-rays, she confirmed that Kaelen had imbedded his front right tooth and the tooth next to it, deeply into his gums. Because they were impacted at an angle, there is likely no chance for the teeth to survive. Due to the angle, the vessels that supply life to the tooth, were cut off, resulting in the tooth dying. She had mentioned that the end result will be the removal of both teeth, within 3 months.

Now many people have commented to us that this isn't a big deal because they are his baby teeth, but I am figuring that they have never had to deal with a situation like this. There is a chance that Kaelen could develop a speech impediment due to those missing teeth, and although the trauma to the area only occurred a short time ago, the pain that Kaelen is experiencing everytime something touches the teeth and gum area is extremely painful. Plus, he will be missing those teeth until the adult ones decided to come down - and that is hoping that those didn't sustain any damage upon impact.

Paul and I are trying to find the humor in this, and even going so far as to claim that Kaelen is sporting the Bobby Clarke look, however in the big picture we are devastated for Kaelen. He is a true trooper, but there is something fundamentally heartbreaking when you watch your baby in extreme pain and trying to deal with it. The only thing that we can do for him at the moment is to offer him lots of comfort, hugs, kisses and Tylenol. Hopefully very soon he will want to eat and he will let us get into his mouth to clean both his teeth and wounded area to ensure infection doesn't set in.

Poor little Kaelen. He just never seems to be able to get a break.......