Loosing Baby Teeth

[clockworkgirl21]

Does anyone know if Aleksey had any problems teething or loosing his baby teeth because of his hemophilia? Did doctors have anything planned for this?

[Ortino]

*Shrug* an interesting question. Teething rarely causes bleeding, so I imagine that wouldn't have been much of a problem. If teeth are allowed to fall out naturally, there isn't that much bleeding. If he let them fall out this way instead of a child's natural inclination to pull them out, I'm sure he would have been fine.

[Sarushka]

I would imagine they could have packed the gap in his gums with cotton wadding to prevent bleeding when a tooth fell out. According to Robert Massie, external/surface cuts are usually well-managed with pressure & bandaging. By virtue of its size, a person's mouth is certainly easier to work with than a bloody nose!

[Russian_Duchess_#5]

 Ortino's suggestion of Aleksei letting his teeth fall/grow out naturally makes sense, when consulting photos, you can see that he came to lose his baby teeth quite slowly through time.
At least, in my opinion.
I'm imagining him with that toothache bandage around his head
Sofia

[jenjen]

I was remembering this accident I had as a kid when I fell and knocked a couple of my teeth out.  I wonder, when Alexei lost teeth, how was that with his hemophilia?  When you lose teeth, your gums bleed.  I wonder if they just made him put pressure on his gums with a cloth, or if it was much of an issue.

[Sarushka]

I wonder if they just made him put pressure on his gums with a cloth, or if it was much of an issue.

I'm no doctor, but I would imagine that was the case. External cuts could be managed effectively with pressure. Bruises, intermal hemorrhages, and nosebleeds were the big dangers.

You might send Belochka a PM. She has medical training.

[Historybuff_262]

Here's a thread about that. I know they mention teeth in it somewhere. Good luck finding it. 

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php/topic,1196.270.html

[clockworkgirl21]

I remember that thread. I think they decided Aleksey probably wasn't in any danger when he lost teeth. My uncle has hemophilia, and he told me he lost all his baby teeth with no trouble when I asked about it. 

[Natasya]

I always wondered what might happen if he had an appendicitis.

[jenjen]

Thanks for all your answers everyone!!

[stacey]

I always wondered what might happen if he had an appendicitis.

Well, I'm no doctor either, but I bet it would have been very very serious. On the one hand, you can't risk the appendix rupturing, because that would cause peritonitis, which often results in death. (Especially in those days before antibiotics--my own father, at the age of 5 in 1927, very nearly died of a ruptured appendix followed by peritonitis--and he at least wasn't a hemophiliac!) On the other hand, if you do surgery to remove the appendix, that necessarily involves bleeding, probably a lot of it. External bleeding could generally be controlled by applying pressure, but I don't see that being effective in major surgery--which after all is what an appendectomy is!!

I really can't imagine Alexei, in the days before blood transfusions and antibiotics, having a chance of surviving major surgery. I would think he would have bled to death. 

After all, a simple nosebleed once came very close to killing him! 

[Natasya]

What do you think they'd do if they knew he had one?