D is for dentist

Oh boy, the dentist.  So many people have hang-ups about visiting the dentist for a routine checkup :) and many with reason -- sometimes pain accompanies it ...

Today I am thankful for our dentist.  He found something that if left untreated could have caused my sweet youngest child to lose many of her adult teeth.  She had a panoramic x-ray (or whatever it's called--the one that goes all around your head) and the dentist and hygenist observed something pretty rare (I guess) and not so good. 

Ready for a little dental biology lesson?  Well in our gums, around new teeth is something called a follicle -- and from what the dentist has said it plays a part in dissolving the baby tooth before the adult tooth comes in.  I'm really not super-clear on it exactly. . .

Anyhow, when her x-rays were read, they saw that the adult tooth to the side of her front tooth has no root.  NO ROOT.  :/  Apparently the follicle from the tooth (canine?) right next to it is kind of pushed over due to some crowding of another unerupted adult tooth and has been dissolving that root right away. 

Okay, so this is quite concerning, honestly, but I am deciding to view this as a positive thing and thanking God that this was discovered now, before any more of her teeth were affected.  It will probably mean an implant in her near future, but at least it's just the one tooth. 

SO my "D" word of this week is the dentist, because it is on my mind :)

And my thankfulness that this issue was discovered. . . and will be treated and resolved.