Living with my greatest fear.

~Chapter 14~

Grant's POV:

We're now sitting inside the waiting room and Tobey and I just wanted Ellie to try and calm down before we spoke to her. She was very close to having a panic attack so I held onto her hand and put it up to my chest.

"Follow my breathing, princess, calm down for me."

Eventually, Ellie starts to calm down and she almost stops crying.

"Do you think we could go back to my exam room and have a look at that mouth of yours to see if we can see what's causing your pain?"

Ellie just shrugged her shoulders. I assumed that was as much of a yes as I was going to get. Both me and Tobey stand up, I hold out my hand for Ellie to hold onto as we walk to my exam room, she hesitantly holds on to it. Tobey goes to my exam room and sits down on the assistant's chair: leaving the dentist chair for me.

Ellie and I get to the exam room.

"Can you take a seat for me, princess?" I say, pointing to the dental chair.

Ellie just looks at me and doesn't move.

"E?"

"I want Tobey to look at my mouth..." Ellie whispers.

"Okay, E. Can you take a seat for me?"

"Mhm.."

Ellie sits down, and Tobey and I swap seats. It does hurt me a little that Ellie didn't want me to look at her mouth but I wasn't going to question it. I just wanted to get my sister out of pain and if this was the only way, then so be it.

Tobey's POV:

I'm surprised when Ellie said that she wanted me to look at her mouth, especially because I haven't since she was little. Grant and I swap places and I sort myself out with everything. I asked if Ellie was ready for me to recline the chair back, she only really half-heartedly agreed to it, so I looked to Grant to see if he wanted me to carry on. He just nodded his head so I started to recline the chair back.

As the chair was reclining, I moved the tray of tools closer towards me, I turned the light,  positioned it towards Ellie's mouth and I put my gloves and mask on.

"Alright, poppet, can you open your mouth as wide as you can for me?"

Ellie opened her mouth slightly but was obviously trying to push her mouth open more because she was wincing.

"Ellie, don't force yourself to open your mouth all the way. Just as much as you can."

She closed her mouth a little bit, it still looked like she was in pain but not as much as she was just a minute ago.

I started to feel down the outside of her jaw, to see if I could feel anything that was sticking out in the wrong place. I got to just below her ear and she shot up from the chair and put her hand on her jaw.

"Hey, hey, hey, E, are you okay?" Grant asks as she faces towards him.

Ellie shakes her head.

"I'm really sorry, Ellie, I didn't know that part of your jaw hurt." I say, feeling bad that I have hurt her.

"I-i-it's o-okay..." she replies.

"Do you want to tell me which other areas hurt, so I don't accidentally hurt you again?"

Ellie starts to point to most places on the right hand side of her mouth. I look up at Grant and he looks back down at me, both knowing what she could've done.

"Okay, poppet. Can you lay back down for me, so I can check the inside of your mouth?"

Ellie complies and slowly starts to lay back down. Once she is led back down, I tell her to relax her jaw and to let me open it. I put my index finger and thumb on her chin and just opened her mouth slightly. With my other hand, I got my mirror and had a look on the right hand side of her mouth, where she said she felt the pain.

I can see that she has chipped a couple of her teeth and has cracked one of them. It's definitely going to be a long night.

I look up to Grant and gestured for him to lean over and to have a look at her mouth. I show him the 3 chips and crack on her teeth and he looks so upset.

Grant's POV:

Tobey has just shown me what damage E has done to her teeth and I feel so bad for her. I didn't think she would have chipped 3 teeth and cracked one. Thankfully, I don't think the crack is very big. It doesn't go all the way across her tooth but I don't know how deep it is. Tobey will have to take some x-rays to find out. Depending on how deep the crack is, depends on how much treatment she will have to have tonight. If it's deep, then she will have no choice but to have it dealt with tonight, but if it isn't relatively big, then I will give her the option to have it sorted tonight or tomorrow or Monday. I don't think there's a massive need for Ellie to have her chips sorted tonight, because they aren't major and they can wait until tomorrow or Monday.

"Ellie, I'm going to have to take an x-ray, okay, poppet?" Tobey says.

She nods her head.

He goes to get the bite wings and lead jacket for Ellie.

"And bite down...perfect. Grant and I are just going to have to step out for a minute, so I can take the x-ray."

She nods her head again.

I tell her that when we are outside, she has to stay very still otherwise the x-ray won't work.

Tobey's POV:

I've taken the x-ray and I am just waiting for it to develop so I can see it on the computer.

Once it has developed, I look at it and it doesn't look like the crack is very deep, which is a very good thing. I get Grant to come over and have a look and ask him whether he thinks it's important to do it now or ask if Ellie wants to do it another day.

"Ellie, you've cracked one tooth and chipped 3. Now, we don't have to worry about the chips tonight, you can choose to have them done tomorrow or on Monday. I took the x-ray to see how deep your crack went. It doesn't look like it is very deep, so you can choose to have that done tomorrow or after school on Monday too."

"Can they all be done on Monday after school? As long as they aren't going to cause me any more pain between now and then?" Ellie asks.

"Of course they can, poppet. We can give you painkillers for you to take between now and Monday, so your mouth doesn't hurt."

"Okay, thanks." She said quietly.

It's good that Ellie chose to have them done on Monday, because Grant can check on them at school and then he can bring her here when he is finished for the day.

I let Ellie get off the chair and let her leave with Grant.

"Bye guys and remember, Ellie, that if and when your mouth hurts make sure you tell Grant. He can give you some painkillers."

Ellie nods and they head out of the clinic.

I go back to the exam room and clean and tidy everything away from tonight and make sure it is all ready for Monday morning.