Please Pray for Bethany

Last night, the kids were having an overnight with their cousins. They were swimming in the neighbors pool, and as Bethany pushed herself off the bottom of the pool, her lower jaw hit the bottom rung of the ladder, pulling her bottom four front teeth out of their sockets. We received the phone call sometime before 8:00 and flew to meet them at the hospital. The emergency doctor sent us to an oral surgeon at 9:30 pm where he spent over an hour placing her teeth back in and stitching her gums up, using only local anesthetics. Everyone was very impressed with how calm and brave she was considering her age and the severity of the trauma. We got home around midnight and started getting her settled in for the night.

Last night, we were told that there was a 30% chance that we might save the teeth (they are all adult teeth). At her follow up visit today, Dr. Linman said it looked like her teeth had been healing for a week already! He bumped her chances to 40-50%, so that's encouraging! She is on a strict liquid only diet, antibiotics, pain meds, and zero activity for the next 2-4 weeks with weekly visits to the surgeon. Time will tell what will happen with her teeth. Even if we can save her teeth, she will still have a very long road of recovery including root canals and orthodontic work for several years to come. If we can't save them, she will have to wait until she's older to receive implants. 

We know that God isn't surprised by any of this and whatever happens, we will praise Him for it. I'm so grateful it's just her teeth and she is still with us! Please pray with us that Bethany's teeth will heal quickly and that she will have minimal procedures ahead.  We appreciate your love and support as so many have offered to help. The best help you can give is to pray for the best case scenario.

She has to sleep in a chair so she doesn't roll around or lay on her face. Any kind of jarring or moving or bumping the teeth will decrease the chance of restoration.  She is such a trooper!