Teeth Happenings

I'll start by admitting this post probably contains more details than most people want to read, but since this is like a journal for me I'll keep writing. Feel free to skip it, I won't be offended.

We've had a lot of dental-related happenings recently. February was the month for all of us to have our biannual cleanings with the dentist. Tyson went for his first official cleaning. He let the hygienist scrape, polish and fluoride his teeth with no problem. She even managed to get two films of his teeth. She tried for bite wings and that made Tyson gag, so we'll try those next time. I'm just glad Tyson did well and it won't be a struggle to take him to the dentist. Yea!

Last Thursday Ethan lost his first tooth! It was perfect timing because Allison had her 4 teeth (that's the next story) so the tooth fairy could just come once and leave money for both of them. Ethan was so excited! He has another wiggly tooth, so hopefully the tooth fairy will be making another visit in the near future.

And now for Allison...she brushes her own teeth so I didn't notice she had two new teeth coming in on the bottom. Unfortunately, the baby teeth they were to replace were not coming loose. We have dealt with this situation with all the baby teeth she has lost thus far, but the dentist gave us bad news at her cleaning. Those baby teeth weren't moving and the permanent teeth were trapped. So he sent us to the orthodontist. His recommendation was to extract 4 baby teeth so the 2 permanent teeth could move into place and then start phase I braces. I was a little stunned with his thoughts. Pull four teeth?! Braces, she just turned 9?! Luckily, I have a dentist in the family so I was able to talk to my brother and get his opinion. Unfortunately, he agreed with the orthodontist. (Dad, I would have asked you too, but you were out of the country). So 10 days ago Allison had 4 teeth pulled. I wasn't sure how this would go. Four sounded like a lot of teeth to me, but Allison did great. She had one dose of pain medication afterward and that was it. She felt fine and went to school the next day. What a trooper! Now she has her appointment to start the process for braces on Monday. Earl and I knew she would need braces at some point, but we had no idea it would be this soon. As for Allison, I think she is kind of excited about it. The first thing she asked me after having her teeth pulled was, "When do I get to go to the orthodontist?" Really?! I don't remember being excited for my braces.