The Tooth Fairy

My William has always been a mover and a climber.  He began walking when he was 10 months old and when he was 10 months and 1 day (or so it seemed) he began climbing on everything. He was Houdini and he frightened me so.  Despite his innate ability to climb anything, William, however, was also very clumsy.  I didn't realize it so much when he was learning to walk because I naturally justified his falling to "normal progression."  In addition to being an early walker, Will's teeth also came in very early.  His top two teeth were so precious, but they stuck out very far. 
They stuck out so far, that every time Will fell he bumped his front two teeth.  When William was 1, he was running down our tiled hallway, and he tripped (on his own feet) and fell face down to the floor.  And staying with tradition, he bumped his teeth extremely hard causing much blood, chipped teeth, and making them loose.  This fall led to great pain for William.  So, we made our first visit to the dentist.  X-Rays were taken and his roots and nerves were slightly damaged, but we would have to wait a few weeks to see if the teeth would harden in place once again or if the nerve damage would become severe and the dentist would need to remove the teeth.  Well, we made it past the few weeks and the teeth were doing better and were only slightly loose. 

But Will continued to have a tendency to fall or bump his mouth on the table, the counter, his brothers' heads, or anything at his mouth's level.  Each time the bump caused blood (which is far more often that I would like to admit) we went to see the dentist.  I am so glad that we had a great dentist and that Will had not developed a fear because it felt like we almost lived at his office.  In fact, the front desk staff began to know my voice on the phone and would always arrange Dr. Stratton's schedule for us.  Our dentist would tease me saying that whenever Will falls, his teeth stick out further than his nose and that's why they get hurt.  Although he was exaggerating, it was still kind of true.  The inevitable finally occurred.....Will developed an abscess tooth and the dentist had to remove one of the teeth.  I was heart broken for many reasons.  Of course, the first being worried about Will's pain and Will developing a lifelong fear of the dentist.  My second, and I am ashamed to admit it, concern was the vanity issue.  Would he still be my cute Will with a tooth missing?  He wasn't even 2 yet, so I also feared that other people would assume that he had rotten teeth from my lack of care.  I know, totally silly stuff. 

But as you can see, he was still totally adorable cute with one tooth missing.  The dentist removed the tooth and Will was an excellent patient.  I was so proud of my little man.  After the extraction, Dr. Stratton sat me down and we went over the care procedures for the next couple of days.  At the end of the conversation, he said to me, "Now Mrs. Bennett, please try to keep Will from climbing."  It seemed that the dentist assumed that Will was being injured frequently because of my lack of proper attention.  Just after Dr. Stratton said that, Will walked into the office, being escorted by the hygienist, and Will tripped on his own foot and fell face forward into the desk.  Luckily, he still had so much gauze in his mouth and plenty of pain medication that he didn't feel a thing.  I think he even giggled a little.  I had been telling the dentist that Will was very clumsy, but now Dr. Stratton had witnessed it first hand.  His only reply was, "Never mind Mrs. Bennett." We both got a good chuckle and Will and I were on our way.   Until the next time.  The next time came only a few weeks later when Will bumped his tooth hard on Oliver's head.  Needless to say, the 2nd tooth came out.  The dentist and I decided that it was unnecessary to allow Will to continue to go through this and go ahead and pull out the tooth.  It was actually quite a relief because I no longer worried as much about his falls.  By the time William was 2 years old, he had been to the dentist more times that I can remember, had tons of x-rays, 2 teeth removed, and endless conversations with the dentist (Will loved Dr. Stratton).  Dr. Stratton reminds me of Dick Van Dyke by his appearance, smile, mannerisms, kindness, comedy, and general likability. 




Just love that toothless grin.

Will turned 5 in July so now having two teeth missing isn't all that unusual. Our family went to dinner the other evening and after William bit into his dinner, he made an awful face as if he were disgusted by what he was eating. He said that the had taken a bite that was hard and white and he spit it out to the ground. As I looked as his mouth while he was talking, I found the spot in his mouth where that "hard, white thing" should have been. Bruce immediately got on the ground underneath the table and found that itty bitty little tooth and I safely tucked it inside a napkin. Alas, he finally lost a baby tooth legitimately. There was no drama, no tears, no pain, no anything. He was just matter of fact about the whole thing. He was however, very excited that the tooth fairy would be visiting that evening. He was too young previously when his other teeth were extracted so this was the first time he got to experience the tooth fairy. Such fun times. A little sniffle on my part as I know this is just another milestone that means William is growing up.