Caleb's pano....a reason to rejoice!!

Today was a great day. Parker and the kids decided to come and visit me during my lunch break. I was really happy that they came to see me at work (that doesn't happen very often). And while we were there I decided that Caleb might be ready for a panoramic x-ray. We've been putting it off because we weren't sure he would cooperate. However, since he was in the office today I decided we'd give it a try. I showed him the pano machine, and told him what it does. Then he walked right up to it, held the handles and bit on the mouthpiece as if he knew all along what to do. He held completely still as it was going around his head and when it was done we saw this.....

I took one glance at those little molars in the back and tears came to my eyes. He has molars!! Oh the relief! Do you realize what this means?! First of all...that's 2 more teeth to chew with once they come in. It means that when he's all done growing, those molars can be an anchor for a bridges or a flipper. Now....sadly he's only got the 2 on the bottom. I don't see any maxillary molars.....but you know what else this pano shows?

Tooth buds at the base of each canine! Permanent teeth growing behind those tiny little buggers! And his one molar that is errupted, has a small dark spot at the bottom of the roots. It's likely that that dark spot is the START of another permanent tooth bud. (That particular tooth is one of the last baby teeth to come out, so the permanent one doesn't develop until later).

I can't even express how happy I was today. My boy will get 2 more teeth! Not to mention he will get the experience of losing at least 5 of his baby teeth. What a day! Dr. Thompson also said we'll probably be able to get him fitted for a flipper in about a year. At least the top. He's going to look so different with a toothy smile. I know it's gonna be weird for me at first. I hope he'll wear it. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now...I'm happy to report my boy has molars!