Teeth Tales

We had ourselves a little tooth drama last night.

Yesterday evening I was sending some emails for work when Jaimee and Kate came running in, Jaimee in tears.    "Mum, Kate and me banged heads" Jaimee wailed.  I didn't even look up, tears are such a normal thing with my girls during any argument (oh dear, what are the teenage years going to be like). "Oh dear...hang on..." I said as I typed a few more lines, glancing at Jaimee briefly.  Hang on - I took a second look.  Blood streaming down her chin.  The email was abandoned.  

I calmly took her into the bathroom, grabbing a cloth on the way and pressing it to her mouth.  "Let's take a look" I said when she calmed down a bit.   I couldn't see much except that her tooth was on a funny angle.  She has already lost two teeth, so my first thought was that this one was just about to fall out too and that the bump had helped knock it out.   I took her into the lounge  and  (ever the optimist)  I cheerfully suggested to Marty "I wonder if I can just pop it back into the socket?". 

Hahahahahaha.  

I took a closer look by lifting her lip.  Oh my goodness.  It looked like her tooth had come out from her gum, tearing the gum slightly on its way.  I went to touch it. "ARRRGGHHH" screamed Jaimee. "DON'T TOUCH IT MUMMY".  Right.  Guess I am not touching it.  Marty and I looked at each other helplessly.  "Do you think I should take her into the doctors?"  But what do doctors know about teeth?  I had no idea what to do. Marty said quite firmly (never the optimist) "You have to take her somewhere".  So I rang the after hours doctors and had barely said "5 year old knocked her tooth into her gum" before they cut me off : "Bring her in".  Ever practical, I yelled out to Marty on my way to the car "start the potatoes for tea please".  Off we went, leaving poor Kate hysterically crying behind and wailing "I want to come tooo" (Marty assured her it was NOT her fault). 

We arrived with a sobbing Jaimee, and were ushered straight in.  Jaimee screamed hysterically as soon as the nurse came near her.  I (yelling over her screams) explained that she has had major surgery before and is a bit of a horrid patient and very wary of doctors and nurses.  Righto.  The nurse assured Jaimee she would not touch her tooth, so Jaimee let her have a wee look.  "Hmm...I think the doctor should take a look, in case it needs a wee stitch".  I calmly replied with a smile "sure thing"....while inwardly I panicked at the thought of my already hysterical child having to get a stitch in her GUM.  

Luckily, the doctor managed to get one teeny sneaky touch of the tooth in and felt confident that it was the whole tooth and that it was now hanging on by a thread.  She said it would probably fall out on its own, and that the gum was going to be fine.  Suggesting that we take her to the dentist in the morning, and writing out an ACC form (just in case), we went home again with a much calmer child now that no medical staff were coming after her with gloves and a smile.  

Dinner was quite an achievement: I had to cut it up into teeny tiny pieces but she did manage.  Sleep was a long long time coming, the poor child sucks her thumb to go to sleep every night and she just couldn't do it with that tooth there.  When I came home at 10pm from Bible Study, she was still awake and looked shattered.  Poor baby. I stroked her hair and gave her a cuddle.  Eventually she drifted off.

The next morning she put her foot down.  "I can't eat".  No amount of coaxing helped.  No way was she going to eat anything.  Eventually Marty caved and made her a smoothie with fruit and cereal in it which she happily gulped down.  Of course, Kate had to have a smoothie too!

We went to the dentist at 9am and in her minnie-mouse high voice and with a big smile the dentist said  "ohh I will just go and get my numbing cream and then we will just ....(motioning a pulling tooth out action to me).  Oh boy.   Jaimee let her put some stuff on her lip with a swab while the dentist cheerfully talked about how yummy that tasted to her.  Next she pulled out the water and sucker machines and turned them on to show Jaimee (on her hand) how they worked.  Good idea, I thought.  Show her how harmless it is.  Jaimee disagreed.  Pulling her hands away she started crying.  The dentist shows Kate on HER hand how it works. Lots of giggles from Kate.  The dentist reaches for Jaimee's hand again.  Louder cries.  

Away go the tools (I was encouraging the dentist to just get in the mouth and ignore the cries, while I pin her down... but apparently that's not very nice).  The dentist just grabbed a paper towel, and quick as a flash - yanked out the tooth.  Just like that.  Jaimee didn't even see it coming.  She stopped crying once she saw the cool tooth in a bag with her name on it.

All the way to school she chatted happily about how much dollars the tooth fairy would give her and how does the tooth fairy know which bed is her one.  I told her I was the tooth fairy's helper.  "No you are not mummy" she tells me firmly.  (I did try explaining the tooth fairy wasn't real once but she refused to hear me!). 

So I deposited her in her class with a tooth in one hand and a gape in her mouth just in time for 'news' on the mat.  I would have loved to hear her tell the story in her own words, but there you have it in mine!