Four-Year-Old's Toothache in Estonia Turns Out to Be More Serious Than Expected

In Estonia, a toothache in a four-year-old girl named Elena has turned into a serious worry for her family. The case was described by an Estonian news outlet and retold by the Latvian portal Apollo.lv. It concerns parents who may assume a child's complaint is an ordinary dental matter.

The girl's mother noticed swelling in her daughter's lower jaw. At first she assumed it was a sign of a new tooth coming through.

From assumption to suspected infection

The mother soon realised that explanation did not fit, because all of Elena's baby teeth had already come in. She began to suspect that an infection was behind the swelling.

The source text says the diagnosis eventually turned out to be considerably worse than the mother had thought. The available excerpt does not say what the diagnosis was, how the girl is being treated or what her condition is now.

The point of the story is that swelling in the jaw together with a toothache can indicate something more serious than a tooth erupting. In this case the mother's suspicion of infection arose because teething was already over.