Shortly after I tucked Ethan in bed and turned off the light, he yelled, “Mom! I lost my toof!” And lo, the little bugger lost his third toof. Luckily Grandma had a dollar on loan for the tooth fairy, but if she hadn’t I’m not sure what the tooth fairy would have left.
Two more are loose.
E lets his teeth fall out naturally, but I remember when I was little there was a lot of imaginative talk about tying a loose tooth to a car bumper and pealing out of the driveway or fetching the pliars for ol’ dad (“and while I’m in there, we’ll get the rest”), et cetera. When I was a kid, I usually got to a point where I couldn’t stand the tooth knocking around in my mouth anymore and demanded that somebody else pull it by whatever means necessary. Was anyone else this gonzo?
Next time I’ll suggest bungie cord and a cinder block and we’ll see what E thinks.
I figured out that there was no tooth fairy around the time I started intentionally losing loose teeth at my dad’s house, either through vigorous tongue-wiggling or letting him tie a string to the tooth and a cabinet door. He gave better trinkets, what can I say.
I pulled out my last baby tooth while I was at my friend Ryan’s house. This would be during freshman engineering at Purdue. I believe I was 28 years old. How does any of that make sense?
I actually had all mine pulled by my dentist (not at the same time, of course) except two whith we pulled with the string and back door trick. Very cool at the time.
I always ate something hard, such as a sucker or Butterfinger candybar, and made sure to chew/bite with the tooth in question. The trick was not swallowing the tooth, though, which I fortunately never did.
My grandpa was a dentist, which you’d think would have made things very convenient. However, he didn’t really like giving novocain to kids, so when he tried to fill one of my baby teeth that had gotten a horrible cavity, I screamed so much he just gave up and let it rot out of my head, since it was going to eventually fall out anyway. And I never sat in his chair again.
Of course, when he gave up his practice and cleaned out the office, I wanted his chair, but it was sold before I could get my hands on it. I think my uncle, who lives in my grandparents’ house, still has the cool cabinet with all the little drawers and models of teeth, though.
Oh, I can also remember trying to pull out a tooth but having it hanging by a thread. It’s hard to get a good enough grip to pull it out.
i asked the tooth fairy for her phone number when i was 8. left her a note. she didn’t reply. and i lost faith in her forever.
she’s a heartbreaker!
Extraordinarily late, but my mom was a dental hygienist and we learned early on not to even mention that a tooth was slightly loose until we were ready to have it go. I can still see her heading towards me, the needlenose pliers in her hand ….
Brrr.