Tonight my kid said “How come your front bottom teeth have to make a sore on the top of your mouth?” To which I replied, “They’re not supposed to.” She showed me. Indeed, she does have a sore on the top of her mouth just behind her front teeth. It looks swollen, which of course exacerbates the problem. She might have injured her mouth somehow (burned it on hot food? Scraped it?) and now it’s swollen so her lower front teeth hit that spot and have made a canker. Well, not much I can do about it tonight. While she’s awake I can have her chew on a toothpick or hold a popsicle stick between her back teeth, but she can’t sleep that way and nobody sells OTC “night guards” for children. I’m not quite sure what to do for her. It’s New Years Eve. And tomorrow everything would be closed even if it wasn’t Sunday, and Monday will probably be just as bad. I will be talking to the dentist, maybe even tomorrow if I can get through to him through his answering service, but I could use some ‘make her comfortable’ suggestions until the dentist can do something up to and including braces.
I don’t know about everything being closed. Isn’t there some drugstore where you could get Orajel, which will at least numb it? They make it for babies who are teething. (They make it for adults with toothaches, too, and I think it’s basically the same formula.) Chloraseptic (or many other throat sprays) will also numb it. Of course numb feels weird too, but it might be better than pain.
I had the same problem before my overbite was fixed. I don’t remember my parents doing anything for it. I just made sure not to eat food I would have to bite down hard on, and didn’t close my mouth all the way shut.
My father puts a piece of ice cream lid container between my mothers teeth to stop her from grinding them, which might work in this case.
IANAD and not trying to give medical advice. With that said when I have canker sores, washing my mouth out with warm (as warm as I can stand it) salt water helps a bunch. Take a glup of salt water and swish back and forth in the mouth for 20 seconds or so. Spit out and repeat once or twice more. Rinse mouth with clean water afterward.
YMMV of course, and this is not suggested instead of a visit to the denist. It may help with the pain / swelling until then.
Upon further investigation with the kid, she says it’s been going on for ‘weeks’. I now suspect an earlier injury (probably a burn on hot food) which caused initial swelling, which has been kept irritated because of her overbite making her teeth reach that swollen spot. I hope that if the tissue can be given a chance to recover without continued aggravation, the swelling will go down. Of course I will be trying to reach the dentist also.
For tonight, she’s wearing my soft silicone mouth guard (for bruxism/tooth grinding), which doesn’t fit her at all, but at least it won’t choke her in her sleep and she thought she could get to sleep with it in. Tomorrow I’ll try to find a boil-and-bite sports mouthguard in a child size. I know somebody makes them; with luck a local chain sports store will be open and have one in stock. Walgreens 24/7 doesn’t have sports mouthguards. That’s for the short term. Longer term will have to be worked out with her dentist, a great guy with normal dentist hours.
I’ll have her swish with saltwater tomorrow. I also have ‘Kanka’ in the medicine cabinet, now that you mention it, which is an oral anaesthetic which also makes a waterproof film to seal the sore spot. I should have thought of it before she went to sleep. But then, as long as the teeth keep hitting that spot, it wouldn’t help anyway.
Does anybody have any experience with children’s sports mouth guards? My two mouthguards (silicone, and hard acrylic) were custom-fitted for me by my dentist, and I’m assuming at this point that my daughter will get something similar eventually. But goodness knows when he can do that. We have a regularly-scheduled appointment in 3 weeks. It may have to wait that long.
And tomorrow everything would be closed even if it wasn’t Sunday, and Monday will probably be just as bad. I will be talking to the dentist, maybe even tomorrow if I can get through to him through his answering service, but I could use some ‘make her comfortable’ suggestions until the dentist can do something up to and including braces.
That’s for the short term. Longer term will have to be worked out with her dentist, a great guy with normal dentist hours.