Tuesday 18 October 2011

She'll Never Make A Vampire

When I was a child, I held on to my milk teeth for as long as possible. At one stage I had a second tooth appearing before the first tooth had vacated it's position, making the second tooth grow wonky and leaving me needing a brace to straighten it out.

Both Daniel and Eleanor seem to have inherited the same problem. They were both the last in their class to lose their first tooth, and they've both held on to their milk teeth for longer than normal.

A couple of weeks ago, we had to take Eleanor to see an orthodontist as she has still got her canine milk teeth, the fangs I call them, and the dentist couldn't feel one of the second teeth in her gums. The orthodontist took x rays and discovered that both the second teeth were there, but one still had quite a way to come down. It was decided that they would remove the first teeth to make way for, and help, the second teeth to descend.


We went to the dentist yesterday after school, and Eleanor was a star. It was a little difficult to remove one tooth as it had a rather long root, but it eventually came out. I was terrified of dentists as a child and I vowed that my children wouldn't have the same fear. I used to take them with me as toddlers when I had an appointment and the dentist let them sit in the chair and got them used to the experience from being very young. Daniel especially has had lots of things done at the dentist as he broke his front tooth at school, and has also had to have a tooth removed from inside his gum, but getting them used to the dentist from a very young age certainly paid off as they've never had any fear of anything they've had to have done.


Eleanor was presented with a little box containing her two teeth, though the tooth fairy didn't visit as they weren't placed under her pillow.

5 comments:

  1. Well done to Eleanor!
    Fancy getting the teeth presented to you afterwards! Is she wanting to keep them?
    Lisa x

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  2. It really does pay off to take your kids to the dentist from a very young age, then it just becomes part of the routine.

    Well done Eleanor for being so brave.

    I used to be a dental nurse, it was one of my jobs to wash the teeth after extraction and pop them in a little box. Your photo brings back memories! :)

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  3. Well we have all of this to look forward to in Feb. Mikayla lost her milk 'fang teeth' but the adult ones were missing. So, they are going to remove some,from the bottom, and she will have to wear a brace to bring them all together. She is already nervous! Your blanket will be nice when its all sewn up, I like a big stack of squares, the colors look nice.

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  4. That was a big root for a milk tooth, brave girl!

    I used to absolutely love going to the dentist, Dr.Henderson was amazing and I had him look after me from when I was very, very young up until I was about 17, but unfortunately he retired about 8 years ago, so we got a new dentist and I only saw him once...he ended up getting one of the metal instruments stuck in my tooth, I have never plucked up the courage to go to the dentist again after that day, it scared me so much!

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  5. Thank you for your comments.

    Lisa - Eleanor has kept lots of her teeth, she's got them all in a little shell box along with some money which the tooth fairy left her for teeth which she didn't keep herself.

    Rachel - I couldn't be a dental nurse, I was squeamish enough being in the room with Eleanor.

    Gail - I'm sure it will all be worth it once Mikayla's treatment is finished. Daniel still has his milk canine tooth as he had to have the second tooth removed from his gum as it was growing sidewards. They would usually have put a brace on to pull it down but he broke one of his front teeth at school so he has a crown which the dentist didn't think would stand up to the treatment.

    Kay - That's terrible. How about trying another dentist, I'm sure that was a one off, I've never had a metal instrument stuck in my teeth. No wonder it put you off though.

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