DENTAL DRAMA

1/26/09 Silas has a loose tooth. He desperately wanted it to come out on the 25th while he was at church, as he can earn extra tickets that way. No such luck. So, we're all eating lunch on the 26th and he thinks his mouth feels weird. He reaches up and realizes there's blood where his tooth used to be. That's right, past tense, used to be.

But where's the tooth? He searches high and low, but to no avail. It's then that he realizes he's swallowed his tooth with his food. Distraught, he tells me he's afraid the Tooth Fairy won't come. I explain that I've never had such an experience, but that perhaps a note would work. We ask about it on the Sonlight Forums (after all, the answers to all life's questions can be found there) and he's reassured by several women who tell him about when their own children swallowed or lost their teeth and were visited by the TF anyway.

He abandons his lunch and immediately busts out a note to the TF. If only he'd do his copywork for school so quickly!! He then spends the whole day saying "my tooth is going to be in my p-o-o-p". I have no idea why he kept spelling the word.

Silas writing a note to the tooth fairy with a bloody hole in his gums.

"My name is Silas. What's yours? I was eating a Pringle and my third tooth came out. Bye Tooth Fairy. Love Silas"

1/27/09 Silas wakes up in tears. It seems to him that the TF didn't come. I ask if there was money under his pillow and he says there was a quarter under his sheets. My guess is all his wiggling made the quarter move, his guess is that it's money he left on his bed another day, though he can't recall taking money on his bed anytime in the recent past. He also says his note to the TF is gone. My guess is the TF took it, his guess is that it fell off the bed, though he couldn't find it anywhere. He says there was also toilet paper under his pillow. My guess is that the TF has a sense of humor and realizes where that tooth is going to end up, his opinion is that my guess about the toilet paper is funny.

He decides to write a note of clarification to the TF, also written at the speed of light.

"Hi. My name is Silas. What's yours? I lost my third tooth on Monday and on Monday night I don't know if you came. Love Silas"

1/28/09 Silas finds this note under his pillow when he wakes up. He's happy. All is well with the world.

"Silas - I came on Monday and brought you a quarter and some toilet paper. Do you think the toilet paper was funny? Did the tooth come out in your p-o-o-p? I will leave one more quarter tonight so you know I was really here. The Tooth Fairy"

So, that sounds like a happy ending to the dental drama. Right? Wrong!! Read on for the second chapter of this story.

2/3/09 Naomi is happily playing the piano, something she does frequently. Suddenly she performs an Olympic-style twisting vault off the piano bench. She screams. I scoop her up. I see blood coming out of her mouth. (WARNING: This is not super gross, but if you are a total wimp about blood or injuries, then skip the next line or two.) I look at her face and see something horizontal near her gumline. I can't make out what it is because of the blood and wonder if she took a chunk out wood out of the bench. Then I realize it's a tooth. It's completely horizontal and is torn out by the root. It won't fall out of her mouth and I can't figure out why because I can't see the whole tooth. It won't stop bleeding and she won't stop screaming.

Did I mention it was just the kids and I when this all happened? Well, it was. I'm not sure what to do. I'm afraid to pull on the tooth because I can't tell how it's staying connected while totally horizontal. I don't want to do more damage. I also can't get the bleeding to stop. I start to call the pediatrician because I don't know what else to do. It's after hours and I get a recording, so I hang up. Then I call Becky because I don't know what else to do. I hang up on her because I can't really hear her over Naomi's screaming anyway. I'm holding Naomi so that she's leaning forward to prevent her from swallowing the tooth. Not that we aren't professional tooth swallowers around here now, but that's beside the point. Suddenly she pulls the tooth out, the bleeding stops, and she takes her screaming down to a mellow cry.

Aaaahhhhhhh ... peace.

Meanwhile the boys have thrown on shoes and sweatshirts in case we had to run to the ER. After all, we had no idea if there were broken teeth or teeth shoved in her gums because we couldn't see through all the blood. The boys have also gotten a rag to soak up blood and some children's pain reliever with a dosing squirter thing. Dang it, what's that called? Anyway, they were a huge help!

So, now Naomi has gums that will be bruised for a few days. She's also missing a top front tooth and will have a gap there for the next five years or so until her adult teeth come in.

I'm thinking the number of comments about how cute she is are going to plummet. Such is life with a daughter that looks like a hillbilly.

Naomi really happy about the fact that I'm messing with her freshly injured mouth in order to post a pic on my blog. Not that we don't have years of toothless pics ahead of us, but whatever.