Ezra's New Grill

Before in on bottom for some reason and After on top.

About a month ago now, Ezra had a procedure done on his teeth. I think I've posted before about how bad his teeth are and how going to the dentist is a nightmare, not because he's bad at the dentist, but because we always come away with bad news. Our last dentist had wanted to put him under and operate on most of his teeth and we thought we could avoid it. But, when his new dentist here in Idaho recommended the same plan, we thought the Lord must be telling us to go ahead with it. Allowing your child to go under anesthesia is not an easy decision, so we prayed long and hard about what to do. When it came down to it, the cavities were eating into his nerves and he was already experiencing pain--pain that would only get worse over the next few years. The teeth would become infected and need to be pulled. We could have gone the pulling route--but that would have left him with his four top front teeth missing for several years. Having the baby teeth pulled so early would delay his adult teeth from growing in. Oh my. So, we bit the bullet and let the dentist do "nerve therapy", essentially mini-root canals, on four teeth, crown 5 teeth and put fillings in multiple others. You can see why he needed to go under rather than have all the work done in the dentist office--it involves a significant amount of pain.
ANYHOW, the week before Thanksgiving we got up very early in the morning and drove our little boy to the surgery center. Our very own Auntie Avy generously left her house in the pitch black cold and drove over to watch Caroline so that she need not be roused from her bed at 5 AM. We were happy to have an early surgery time so that we didn't need to keep him from food and drink too long into the day.
He bravely obeyed all orders from doctors and nurses and marched off into the operating room alone--they wouldn't let us come along. It was hard to watch him go, I could tell he was trying valiantly not to cry and that made me want to cry. But, he did it. And they brought him to us in the recovery room about an hour and a half later. The dentist was really pleased with the results...and so were we. He recovered there for a short 30 minutes and we were off for home by 9:30 AM. Once home he wanted to eat and play right away. The hardest part of the whole thing was keeping him contained to "quiet activity" for the rest of the day. Praise the Lord it's all behind us! He is very good about letting us carefully brush his teeth twice a day and he even uses fluoride mouth wash correctly. Hopefully we can instill in him good dental habits that will last him a lifetime so that he doesn't have to go through this again with his adult teeth!




As you can see, Curious George went into surgery with Ezra and was treated to everything Ezra was--including the band aid from where his IV went in : ) George was very brave and a huge help to Ezra! Thank you George.