Monday, August 10, 2009

Tooth Troubles

My kid's a wuss, plain and simple. :::sigh:::

Chloe has a tremendous aversion to losing her teeth.

On average (according to our dentist) it takes about two weeks for a tooth to go from "Whee! I have a loose tooth!" to a dollar under the pillow. Most children discover the wiggle and won't stop until that sucker is OUT.

Not so with my sissified six year old who insists that she is in excruciating pain as soon as you look at her tooth the wrong way. It's been loose for 10 months. No, seriously 10 months! That's almost a YEAR. That's way too long. It's hanging there - it doesn't even stand up anymore. She smiles and it just falls over until she uses her tongue to pull it back into place, and that's kinda gross. It's all discolored, the permanent tooth is completely grown in behind it, and that darn tooth just needs to come out!

We've tried bribery. My mother offered her ten dollars in addition to the tooth fairy's going rate of five dollars. That could've been a new toy! I've told her she can watch TV again (she's grounded indefinitely for attitude issues) if she pulls the tooth. Apparently TV doesn't mean much to her - not as much as keeping that tooth does, anyway.

I took her to the dentist today. It was horrendous. She was writhing and bawling in the dentist chair as he tried to pry her mouth open long enough to use a topical to numb the area and then pull it. We gave up and brought her home, tooth still intact. He said it's fine - it'll come out eventually, it's not abscessed, and the permanent tooth will move it's way in when it gets the opportunity.

She's not eating properly anymore, refusing all foods that might make her tooth come out. She won't let me brush her teeth, instead jerking her head away from me as soon as I put the brush against any tooth. The dentist encouraged me to keep trying and assured me it's not likely she'll get a cavity from a couple of weeks of poor tooth brushing... except that we're a lot more than a couple of weeks into it.

Argh! I'm half tempted to sneak up on her when she's sleeping at night and pull the sucker out - it wouldn't take much, she probably wouldn't even feel it. But then really, why do I care? If it makes her feel that much more secure to have a teeny little baby tooth hanging by a thread of a root in her mouth, who am I to stop her?


4 comments:

Mama Kautz said...

I feel your pain...Jesse has a front tooth that is hanging on and he is 10 no amount of bribery has worked and he looks like a goof ball with his perm. tooth already in darn kids LOL

Tricia said...

I am gonna start this with my almost 18 year old is DYING that I am telling you this story. She was JUST like Chloe. She had a fear of losing her tooth. She was gonna DIE if it came out... finally I gave her an apple slice.. she bit in and out it popped. Two weeks later she plucked another one that was BARELY loose out of her mouth...Its not just you sweetie.. its girls.. they are nuts :o)~

Wendy said...

My older DD didn't lose her first tooth until she was almost 8! She was overjoyed about it! We did read a bunch of books that feature kids who are upset that their friends have lost teeth and they haven't. I wonder if that might help change her thoughts on things...then again, she seems like a girl with her mind set - I recognize the signs, have a 4 year old the same way. I'd definitely stop pushing it though. That thing will come out when it's good and ready to. :)

Dani said...

Oh wow! Lilli had my brother pull hers out less than two weeks after the first wiggle. She wanted to see it, and show it to people. And then, when she left it for the Tooth Fairy, she left a note with it asking if she could keep the tooth forever.

Her second tooth is loose now and she can't wait for it to be wiggly enough to yank out!