The Great Tooth-Losing Extravaganza

Rudolfo came to us with some dental issues.  His baby teeth were and continue to be in bad shape.  One of our first stops within a week of arriving home was our beloved pediatric dentist.  He took one look in Rudolfo's mouth and started detailing the work that needed to be done.  As an aside, he also commented on the fact that someone had been doing a very good job in the recent care of Rudolfo's teeth and helped keep a bad situation from getting worse.  (Sending thanks for foster mom for that one!)  We made an appointment for the following week to have a mini-root canal and a crown on one of his baby molars and a filling in another.

The appointment was fairly uneventful except that Rudolfo started having horrible stomach pains in reaction to the nitrous gas and that, combined with several other factors, led to the extraction of the tooth instead of its repair.  I told him how brave he was being through his discomfort.  He was eager to show the tooth to anyone who would look, as well as the gaping hole where it once had been.  He garnered plenty of sympathy.

 

Meanwhile, big sister Sweet One was watching all this attention being lavished on her little brother and began working diligently on the loose front tooth in her own mouth.  She was not to be outdone and shortly after her shower, she yanked that sucker out.  She was so proud and excited that the tooth fairy could visit her too.

 



 

With all the talk of the tooth fairy and the attention now being given to Sweet One, Rudolfo apparently got it into his head that his slightly loose front tooth was loose enough.  Shortly after I put him to bed, he yelled, "MAMA!!"  I high-tailed it up to his room and saw him sitting on bunk bed ladder, holding a bloody tooth in his hand.  I first thought he might have reopened the wound from earlier in the day.  But upon closer inspection, I realized that he had pulled his front tooth!  We raced to the bathroom, rinsed his mouth out, and posed for a photo of the two, each holding a front tooth.

 I was laughing about the whole thing when Sticks said, "You better stop laughing. You're giving this too much attention." I dismissed his concern, but his words couldn't have been truer. 

 

I posted the amazing events of the evening on facebook and within moments of hitting "post," was summoned again with a "MAMA!"  I ran up again only to see Rudolfo in the exact same position with ANOTHER tooth in his hand.  My heart sank.  That tooth had been only slightly loose.  The force that must have been required to remove it had to have been significant. 

 

This time, we down-played the event.  We did mark the moment with this picture of our two toothless wonders and prayed that the tooth fairy could manage payment for four teeth in one household.

 

As I put Rudolfo to bed for the third time, I told him in no uncertain terms that he was NOT to pull any more teeth out of his mouth. That was three in one day for him! 

 

Sticks and I were both very concerned.  I actually thought, "Do we have some sort of psychological pathology going on here?" How does a kid just start yanking out his teeth left and right?  You'd think the pain following the extraction would have been enough to cause extreme avoidance of anything tooth-related!  I dreamt all night of teeth. 

 

Thankfully, the following morning, everyone still had all the teeth in their mouths that they had fallen asleep with, and things returned to normal.  Time has passed with no further tooth-related issues.  I'm pretty sure though that the next time a tooth comes out in this house, the mom of the family will almost certainly suffer from some sort of post-traumatic tooth-stress disorder.  Flashbacks are likely.