Quinn's new smile

In May of last year, there was a basement battle: Quinn vs. the Bike Rack. Unfortunately, Quinn got the worst of it, and emerged bloodied and weeping, with bashed up teeth. One of the teeth gave up the fight, and has been turning brown for quite some time now. This May, a dentist recommended a root canal on the tooth, but after a 2nd and 3rd opinion, we opted to ignore this advice. But she was right. Earlier this week, the presumed abscess in his gums started to emerge. So today, we went in for treatment. But unfortunately, again, in the last few months even more of the existing tooth root has dissolved, making the 1st treatment option statistically less successful. So we went with option 2: Remove the Tooth. So about 2 years early, our son has a gap toothed smile. And when he's about 7, his adult tooth will grow in (provided there isn't a rematch with another bike rack.)

The upside: now he has a place to rest his straw when he sips soda. And people will stop saying "what happened to your tooth" to him. I found this to be really rude, especially this week when the shoe repair guy opened a conversation with this query.

Quinn was a champion at the dentist. No wiggling, no tears. He's excited he gets to show his "black tooth" to his friends at school tomorrow, and then tomorrow night he'll leave it for the tooth fairy. (Too bad his tooth fairy pillow is packed. He's having to borrow Will's, which inexplicably didn't get packed. See previous post for photos of the pillows.)