Sasha runs in to Mommy's room: Mommy, Mommy, I have a loose tooth!
Mommy tries to overcome her normal morning haze/denial that a new day has dawned quite so early: Wha?
Sasha, undeterred my Mommy's slow uptake: Yeah, look!
Sasha violently wiggles not a middle tooth, but the tooth to the right side of the center two.
Mommy chokes down the panic that her four-year-old definitely has a loose tooth, and it's definitely not the tooth that's supposed to be loose first. Trying not to alarm her child or squealch her enthusiasm for this monumentous day: Oooh, yes, that is definitely loose. Wow. Ok, sweetie, let's just not wiggle it any more until we talk to the dentist, ok?
So, it turns out that one of Sasha's front adult teeth is coming in. Strike that - it's in. But it's behind her baby teeth, so it didn't push out the baby tooth in front and instead it made the one to its left wiggly. In the words of the pediatric dentist, "Hmm... I've never seen one come in so early, or so far back." Great, just what I wanted to hear.
But wait, there's more! Sasha is also missing an adult tooth - actually, the tooth that's wiggly is the one missing it's grown-up replacement. Fortunately, her other front tooth seems to be coming in on the normal trajectory and timeframe (it should come in when she's about 7, instead of 4).
It's really no biggie. Given the complications that could have been present with Sasha's cleft palate, these are all very manageable issues that, between orthodontia and implants (if needed) really won't affect her much. It's just not something I wanted to deal with right now :)The short-term plan is to extract the front two teeth to give the new adult tooth space to come in and hopefully work itself forward naturally. She is going to have quite the adorable jack-o-lantern smile for a while! Sasha is thrilled that Tooth Fairy (or, "Fairy Tooth" as she calls her) is going to come give her three whole dollars very soon. And I'll just continue to be grateful for dental insurance.
1 comment:
This post made me smile, in sympathy and with a memory!
When I was about 5 (or maybe not quite), my two lower front teeth had to be extracted because my permanent teeth were coming in just like Sasha's, behind, and not pushing my baby teeth out. I don't remember being concerned about it.
What I do remember is my mom's story about the laughing gas they used for the anesthesia - it made me loopy to the point that I didn't even notice I was kicking both my feet up into the air during the procedure. My mom had to hold them down the entire time!
Hope you don't have any more unexpected dental surprises - and yes, thank goodness for insurance! :-)
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