The carnage started innocently enough. Scarlet mentioned that her tooth hurt. When she pointed to her bottom front teeth, I figured she had bit something wrong. It would be a pretty unusual place to get a cavity.
When she was still complaining about her teeth a few hours later, I decided to investigate. What did I find but a full grown adult tooth growing in right behind her front bottom teeth. It was crazy! The tooth in front of it was just the slightest bit wiggly so I put Scarlet to work. Get that other tooth out or soon you will have one crazy lookin' mouth child!
I didn't think it would be a problem. I still remember getting that tooth that was just the littlest bit wiggly and working on it all day long until it finally gave in and I got my dollar. But, as I am reminded every now and again, Scarlet and I were not cut out of the same mold. The molds are similar in many ways, but she got her own quirks as well as mine.
After two weeks the situation was becoming desperate. Jon pulled out pliers, gave the tooth a few unassuming finger shoves when Scarlet was distracted but still the tooth wasn't going anywhere.
While I was out one evening, one of Jon's friends mentioned his grandmother's tooth pulling method. You wrap a string or thread around the tooth, grab both ends and yank it as hard as you can. Here's where it gets a little gory. The string slides down the tooth in between the gums and cracks the root and out pops the tooth.
And that is what he did.
In this picture you can see the bloody spot where the tooth was clotheslined out of her mouth and then the adult tooth camped right behind it.
For a kid who does not handle painful situations well at all, she did well with this one. The idea of the tooth fairy and a gaping hole in her mouth increased her confidence to maximum levels.
We made our family tooth fairy pillow. It can only be used on nights when the tooth fairy is expected. I plan on recording the dates of each first lost tooth of each child. I am not sure if I am going to go fancy and stitch it on there or just grab a permanent marker... still up in the air on that one.
The joy of the moment lasted only about a week. She was casually admiring her reflection on a shiny surface at a grocery store checkout aisle, when she noticed, "Hey mom, I have another adult tooth!"
Yeah, the tooth next door had popped up as well.
This time, the novelty of the situation had worn off. After another week of no wiggling, the next tooth had to go and she was having nothing of it. I offered everything I could think of. I think the final offer was a can of Sprite, a bag of gummy bears and three dollars from the tooth fairy for pain and suffering.
She was not having it.
In the end, we had to physically pin her down and yank it out. It worked, but I sure hope future teeth decide to make their way out the normal way.
And on a completely unrelated note, I have to share Scarlet's best dress up outfit of late.
5 comments:
I love it all. :D Especially that outfit. Jane can not wait until her teeth come out. :D
I did not realize the implications of the "pulling on string" method until now, ouch. I prefer biting my sister's tights, I think I lost 2 teeth that way.
She sounds like she has my teeth. Either I, or the dentist, had to physically pull out every.one. of my teeth. I think I had like at least 10 pulled from the dentist. Hopefully she is better then that!
Cute story!! Way to be tough Scarlet!!
The same thing happened to Johanna! The adult teeth came in first, behind the baby teeth, and we had to work the babies out. By the second tooth, she was terrified! Hope the others come out easier for both girls :)
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