Do Baby Teeth Have Roots?

Katarina has impacted canine teeth and other dental issues that are going to require braces and oral surgery to be set right. Her orthodontist needs all the baby teeth out of the way to move forward with our treatment plan. We wiggled and wiggled, but all the wiggling in the world was not going to make those teeth come out sooner than they wanted to leave (and a few of them were never going to come out on their own because the adult teeth are not positioned to push them out). After the better part of a year, and only loosing two teeth the "natural" way, her orthodontist recommended having the remaining baby teeth pulled.

She had eight baby teeth! We visited a dentist who was willing to extract all eight for us, but there was a lot of crying, and pain with the first tooth.

It was the smallest of the teeth that needed to be extracted, a canine tooth, but it came out with a huge root attached. I was surprised, having never seen a baby tooth that hadn't been ready to fall out on its own.

I learned a lesson. Baby teeth do have roots. We don't usually see them, because as an adult tooth works its way toward the surface, the root of the baby tooth reabsorbs and disintegrates. This is makes it possible for the baby tooth to wiggle, and come out nearly painlessly and root-free.

This was not going to be a simple, painless procedure, and it was quickly decided Katarina was going to need sedation to get the remaining seven teeth pulled.

I've never had sedation with any dental procedure (I just breath through the pain and pray for strength, because Novocain doesn't work for me), so I never realized how few dentists do in-office sedation. There is only one practice in our area that offers sedation for children, and we were blessed to be able to get an appointment with them. After a consultation visit, Dr. Linnette Hernandez was ready to pull Katarina's baby teeth.

Friday was the big day. It was actually a hungry day, because she wasn't allowed to eat anything after 10 o'clock the night before, or drink anything the morning of the procedure.

The first step was oral sedation. Katarina was weighed. The doctor mixed the medicine according to her weight, and had her drink it in the waiting room.

Katarina, ever the reader, was determined to read her Nancy Drew book while the medicine took effect. Even when she started getting a little loopy, and the letters were waving to her.

Parents are not allowed in the room when sedation is being used, so after the oral sedation had taken effect, the dental assistant escorted her to the procedure room. She was given Novocain shots and laughing gas before Dr. Hernandez pulled the teeth. Twenty minutes later, she was back in the waiting room with me. I was impressed how quickly they were able to pull her teeth.

As you can see, most of these teeth had some pretty impressive roots. Especially the molars.

Here they are with quarters to give you an idea of the actual size.

Now that the baby teeth are out, we wait. We need the permanent teeth to grow in, the orthodontist to give the go-ahead on surgery and braces, and an oral surgeon to do the actual surgery.

Also, we need a lot of soup recipes, because it is hard to eat when you are missing most of your chewing teeth.

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