This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
More Sharkiness
Apr
25
2011
Long-time readers of this blog may remember that Alpha’s bottom teeth did not go willingly. He had his baby teeth and adult teeth together for a while. In electrical terms, it’s similar to a make-before-break switch, as opposed to the normal break-before-make switch everyone else has.
It turned out that his top teeth have the same propensity.
I hadn’t realized it before this happened, but I was looking forward to having a child with that adorable smile where the top two front teeth are missing. Sadly, I have been denied that stage.
With Alpha’s bottom teeth, the baby teeth became more and more loose, and they eventually came out. His top teeth however, just moved forward (and pointed forward too) and became slightly loose but nothing more than that. I think they were settled in and found a comfortable spot.
My initial thought (to which the dentist agreed) was that we should wait it out and something would eventually happen. But after a few weeks where the baby teeth didn’t move and the adult teeth were in and functional, I figured something should be done. (The new ones weren’t completely in, but in enough so that he could use them.)
I took the morning off work and drove Alpha into the dentist’s office. They took an X-ray too see if the baby teeth were going to interfere with the position of the adult teeth. But before the results came back, he looked at and felt the teeth and decided to pull them. The X-ray results just confirmed that decision.
First they put some topical gel on his gums. Not bad. Alpha was still comfortable. But the gel was just so the shot wouldn’t be as painful.
SQUEAMISH ALERT:
The shot then went in at the juncture where the lip meets the gums. I was sitting in the room and could see procedure very well. It was between the layers of skin, so as the plunger on the syringe went down, the bubble of skin got larger. When the shot was done, Alpha had a very large blister above his tooth and was crying. Actually, the crying started as soon as the shot did. That was a big needle, so I don’t blame him. And notice I said “tooth”, not “teeth”. That foreshadows that the dentist did only one side and needed to do another shot for the other side.
END OF SQUEAMISH ALERT
Alpha did very well. He certainly didn’t like the shot, but he held still through the pain and made it through. Before the shot, I think he was looking forward to a trip to the dentist. A classmate of his may have said that she got her teeth pulled by her dentist and it didn’t hurt at all. Now he knows better.
With the blisters under his lips, his lips looked a little puffy.
And we had to wait a few minutes for the anesthetic to take effect. He and I talked for a bit, and he kept feeling his lip. Eventually the dentist came back in and got to work.
First was the standard dental pick – the metal probe/hook/scraper thing. He poked and pulled and pushed with that with no luck. On both sides. Maybe he made progress, maybe it just made him realize how stubborn those baby teeth were. Either way, Alpha was relieved that he couldn’t feel it at all. I also was glad for that.
Then the dentist pulled out the pliers. Not rusty old pliers like some people use, but nice shiny (and sterile) pliers. He pulled the tooth, and twisted the tooth. The pliers must have slipped off at least 3 times before the tooth gave up. And then he had to do the left side, which put up just as much of a fight. You’d think that tooth would have seen what happened to the other guy and just gone quietly. But nooo….. Same process on that side too, and then we were done.
Alpha got to pick two prizes out of the treasure chest. He got a set of wind-up chattering teeth and a something else that was quickly forgotten and lost. And he got some pieces of gauze. His job was to hold the gauze in place until we got back to school, which he did.
At school, he took the gauze off and I saw two large spots of dried blood on his gums.
I figured those were the scabs, and I hoped that he would take it easy during lunch time, which was coming up soon after I dropped him off. And I hoped that he would take it easy during recess, which was just after lunch. I believe I told him to tell his teacher if he felt bad or if his teeth started bleeding again. He nodded and headed off to class.
Here is how the teeth looked after school:
You can barely tell there were any baby teeth there anymore. And now he has a loose tooth on the bottom. If I see the adult tooth come through before the baby tooth is gone, that tooth and I are going to have a little chat.
O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth;
Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD.
Psalm 58:6
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:37 am and has been carefully placed in the Family category.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:55 am
Way to go Alpha. Remember, pain is weakness leaving the body.
April 25th, 2011 at 8:44 am
I hope the first four teeth are not an indication of how the rest are going to come/go!
April 25th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Wow. Tell him I said he is so brave. I canceled my appointment many years ago to have my wisdom teeth pulled because I was too chicken. Now I still have them and am still too chicken to go to the dentist. I hope the rest of his baby teeth cooperate better!!
April 25th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY.
I thought this was a family-friendly blog — not a horror movie.
April 25th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Burrill – I put a squeamish disclaimer in there for you. Or could you not even get past the first picture?
April 26th, 2011 at 1:43 am
No, I made it through the whole dadgum thing because I’m stubborn. I very lightly skimmed the part with the alert, but pictures of gums with spots where teeth used to be and dried blood and talk of pliers and…ICKY ICKY ICKY.