Toothless wonder

On a Friday in June of 2006, Jacob was running with a toy and fell on top of it. He hit his mouth on the rim and it pushed his tooth back into his mouth at a 45degree angle, but it never came loose. I don't think I had ever seen so much blood in my life. Well, we frantically tried to get a hold of our dentist and then Jake's pediatrician. Our dentist never called us back, but the pediatrician referred us to a pediatric dentist that same night and off we went to get xrays.

When we got to the dentist's office, I think he spent more time talking Dave and I down off a ledge than anything else. We were totally freaked out that our little boy would have to have a tooth pulled at only 3 years old. But sure enough, he wanted us back in first thing Monday morning to have the little bugger pulled.

Jake (and Dave & I) got a crash course in the tooth fairy that weekend. Again, he was taking everything in stride while Dave and I would bust out crying every time we looked at him. It just looked so PAINFUL! But our little guy went about his day like nothing ever happened. He even went back to the offending toy on Saturday evening wanting to play with it. O.K. At least there was no trauma from that aspect.

Dave had to leave for a business trip on Sunday so I called my unbelievably wonderful Mom & Dad to come stay with us for a day or two. Dad stayed home with Emma while Mom and I took Jacob to the dentist. I almost had to leave I was so heartbroken. I myself have had a lot of work and surgeries done on my mouth so seeing him sitting in that chair just brought back a lot of icky memories, but anyway, this story is about Jake. He could not have done any better at the dentist if he tried. He was unbelievably calm through the whole thing, even when the put the "funny gas" mask on his face, it never phased him.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I was reminding Jake that he had a dentist appointment on Monday and he got all excited as he usually does when I mention the dentist. But then he got quiet and said "Mommy, is he going to take another tooth?" I assured him that this was just for a cleaning. I told him the dentist had a special tool that would clean his teeth and tickle them at the same time. He seemed fine with this answer, but had just one more question. "Mommy, do they clean them in blood?"

I was now beginning to think that he was traumatized forever by his first meeting with this guy, but then I noticed the tone of his voice. He wasn't at all scared, he really just was curious. And who can blame him? His question makes sense now that I think that the only exposure he's ever had to the dentist involved blood and coming home with one less tooth. He was about to have a new procedure done and just wanted to go in with as much information as he could.

Pretty cool for a four year old, if I do say so myself...