Charlotte's new toothless grin. Bottom left tooth. Lost on Friday, February 19, 2010!On Friday, Charlotte, Philippe, and I were sitting at lunch when Philippe suddenly, and with a hint of alarm in his voice, said, "Charlotte, open your mouth." "What's up?" I asked. "Not sure," he said, "either something is on her tooth or...hey, where's her tooth?"
What I thought was ketchup from her french fry turned out to be blood from the sudden loss of her bottom front tooth. The tooth, we quickly determined, was lodged in Charlotte's hamburger. This was a bit surprising as we expected it to still be lodged in her mouth.
To be honest, I flipped out a bit, thinking we had a broken tooth. Since there was blood, I also though we had to call the doctor or dentist immediately: Due to the artificial valve in her heart, Charlotte has to take a prophylaxis antibiotic prior to dentist's visits to protect against infective endocarditis. I had no idea if she also needed an antibiotic if she had a trauma to her mouth that could lead to the introduction of bacteria into her blood stream.
Since I flipped out, Charlotte started crying. We quickly called the dentist, left a message, and tried the pediatrician.
Based on my description, the nurse determined that Charlotte had simply lost her first baby tooth! Upon hearing that, Charlotte stopped crying, started giggling, and asked if the tooth fairy would know where to find her on vacation.
The dentist called back and said that we did not need antibiotics, thank goodness.
We're going to check in with the dentist on Thursday to make sure it's just the baby tooth, but that is what it looks like for now.
Really...I freaked out, lost my appetite, and shook for a good half hour. My brain wheels started calculating the calls we'd have to make to rearrange our vacation, the begging to the airline to rebook the tickets, the long afternoon in the emergency room with a broken tooth. I was wondering if we needed to keep the burger in case the tooth had broken on something hard in it.
Once the dentist called back, I was finally able to relax. Charlotte has been grinning her newly toothless grin ever since. She's delighted!
And it turns out that that Tooth Fairy can find Charlotte wherever she is!
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