I'm not sure what the "normal" age for losing your first tooth is, but I'm pretty sure Gracen is on the later end of the spectrum. She finally lost her 2 middle bottom teeth, and it was traumatizing, to put it lightly.
They started getting wiggly a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, and my selfish thought was "just wait until after family photos!" #momoftheyear. Well family photos came and went, and nothing happened. A few more weeks went by and nothing happened.
Upon further inspection, her new tooth had started coming in, but the baby tooth was still snug as a bug in a rug in there. Where is this at in all the parenting books I ask you? What chapter does losing teeth fall under? Spoiler alert: it's not in there. So we did what any awesome parents would do: we decided to bribe her in order to get it out. There was lots of screaming. I mean seriously I think she was more scared then hurt, but it was quite the ordeal. Eventually though, we got it out and had a lovely visit from the tooth fairy.
I think I was just as traumatized as she was, so I thought we'd get a jump start on the second tooth and call the dentist for backup. The dentist said obviously the baby teeth needed to come out or it could screw up her permanent teeth (even more than it already has), and sometimes teeth were just stubborn. If we preferred we could have her pull some. Gracen LOVED that idea, mostly because it meant we would get off her case about pulling out the second one herself. And because she was not letting me or the Mr. anywhere near her mouth again.
I tried to prepare her the best I could to let her know it wasn't going to be all rainbows and roses at the dentist. I let her know there may be a shot involved. She didn't care, she was all for the dentist. So the big day finally arrived, and she hopped up in the chair. Gracen, not me, looked the dentist straight in the eye, and asked if there was going to be a shot. Much to our surprise, the dentist said NO! They do something for kids called bubbles? I still don't understand what she means by that, because my trusting 6 year old laid back in the chair and low and behold the dentist gave her a shot!
Full on panic ensued, Gracen shoved the dentist out of her way and screamed bloody murder. I have never ever seen her this terrified/angry/mystified. YOU TOLD ME THERE WASN'T A SHOT. We were "those people" at the dentist. You would have thought we cut off her arm or something.
After at least 20 minutes of trying to calm her down the numbness of the shot was finally taking place, and since she no longer trusted the dentist after that stunt, she sat in my lap and yanked the damn thing out herself.
So to sum it up I spent $35 for her to hate the dentist and pull out her own tooth. This is the note she left for the Tooth Fairy that night:
I love the bloody tooth in the corner.
Needless to say, we'll probably need a new dentist. And if you need me I'll be hiding in the corner scheming about how to pull out her top 2 teeth.
1 comment:
It seems like that tooth held on to her gums longer than you guys expected. I’m surprised at how Gracen reacted to the procedure. I have never heard that kind of reaction before. Anyway, it’s nice to know that she finally got that tooth out, even though she did it on her own. I hope the tooth fairy doubled her reward for doing so. Haha! Thanks for sharing this with us, Emily. All the best!
Rudy Spencer @ LBDP
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