Home dentistry part 1

I pulled a tooth from my son's head today. It was his own, not some random tooth inserted in the side of his skull. And it was loose with another tooth just waiting to take its place. Both very good details for this sort of activity.

One of the only memories I have of my Grandfather O'Brien was running around his house with other cousins and stopping by his chair to show him a loose tooth. He said "where?" and reached in with his massive fingers and grabbed onto the tooth and plucked it out. The force of it wasn't yanking, more like a slow powerful tractor uprooting a tree. At least that is the memory I have. I am sure perspective has amplified a few of the details.

Cole's lower front tooth has been loose for well over a week and this is the first time he came over to me to let me give it a wiggle. I grabbed onto it and I just knew it was ready to come out, so I asked him if he was ready. He said yes and it was over in a second. No blood. No pain. I expected more drama--not on Cole's part, because the kid is a Spartan, but just the whole circumstance.

Anyway, shortly thereafter Cora came up to me to let me look at her mug. I playfully reached out to grab one of her teeth and she ran away to Mary crying because she didn't want me to take out any of her teeth. My artful pantomime is often lost on her.

I have no idea how much money the Tooth Fairy is giving out these days and Mary and I haven't discussed it yet. I think we reached the unspoken agreement to let him hang onto it for a day and tomorrow we will deal with lying to him about the theft and subsequent disposal of his tooth.

So now it is for real. Before today, we could (theoretically) give cole all the candy and soda he wanted and let him behave recklessly on the playground. If his teeth were knocked out or left to rot away, there was always the back-up set. My teeth have all been chipped, loosened, root canaled, pinned and epoxied in place with maxofacial endodonic surgery to top it off. I am not exactly the dental role model he should be looking up to. Fortunately, Mary has beautiful teeth and a lovely smile for him to aspire to.

Tomorrow we have much to look forward to. I plan on teaching him how to spit water out the gap between the teeth. It is a lower tooth, so the degree of difficulty is high for his first time, but I believe he is up to the task.