Saturday, September 26, 2009

Thus was dentistry born...


Thursday night I pulled the right front tooth on this boy:

He bore up manfully. His folks mentioned he had a tooth wot needed to come out, and I'm sure the wheels were greased by my offer of $5 if he'd let me pull it. He said "for $100, I'll let you pull my head off!" What a cutie! Nah. I'd rather pull the little teeth $5 at a time. Plus, he's nice to have around. I scrubbed up, sheathed the tooth in a piece of saran wrap, and a good little tug liberated the tooth from its fleshy prison. Fly free, little toothie!





Friday night I pulled this one:

This one was being pushed aside by the permanent tooth coming in behind, and this one was barely hanging on. He has another loose one, and he's a pretty tough guy... Today we may make a three-fer of it.



What's funny to me is kids who'll leave the tooth flapping in the hangar for weeks, loose. I liked pulling my baby teeth. When one went wobbly, by golly, it was coming out. I've pulled teeth for lots of little kids, and I haven't always had to bribe them to let me do it. One squeamish friend would always ask me to "take care" of her daughter's loose tooth- they both were grossed out by it. What can I say? I'm a giver.

What baffles me is that most of these teeth come out with no effort-- I don't know how they managed to keep them in so long. Both these baby teeth came out clean as a whistle and with barely any foundation remaining to hold the tooth in. My teeth came out with their little shanks fully intact, blobby little chunks of flesh still holding on around the edges. I suppose that flesh figured it would stick with the winner. They figured wrong. Anyhoo, the teeth were coming out.

Heh.

3 comments:

Jon said...

My brothers, and I, were a little enthusiastic about the quarter, so we would help each other when the tooth became the least bit loose. The double tugs with dental floss nooses were a sign our efforts were a little premature.

breda said...

My dad pulled out my teeth. He'd trick me and say, "Come here, let me see your loose tooth." and then quick as a wink, reach in and pop the little bugger out. I never understood my little school friends who would go to the dentist for that.

Old NFO said...

Different strokes for different folks... Country folks take care of business, city folks PAY to have them pulled... :-)