For the last week or so, Miles has been moaning about his teeth hurting. We weren’t sure whether this was a legitimate grievance or if Miles was just trying to get out of brushing (it’s a real “boy who cried wolf” scenario), but yesterday one of his front teeth was noticeably discolored. After he persistently complained about pain at daycare, Jaclyn took him to the dentist.
The dentist discovered an abscess where his gum and lip meet above his front teeth. They said it wasn’t caused by any hygiene neglect, but was the result of some sort of physical trauma. Sure enough, an x-ray revealed that one of Miles’s teeth had fractured near the root, which led to a slow-developing infection that created the abscess and necessitated the pulling of said tooth (or the “wiggling” of the tooth, as the dentist said to make the process sound a bit more palatable).
And when did Miles experience a collision severe enough to cause all this? We’re pretty sure it was this. It takes quite a collision to leave actual teeth marks in the floor, after all.
And so Miles said goodbye to one of his baby teeth a bit prematurely yesterday. And while you may be thinking, “But what about the tooth fairy?” rest assured that he DID keep the tooth and it DID end up under his pillow last night.
There’s also still one chunk of the tooth still up in his gum that, in time, will fall out. I figure that’ll be worth a penny or two.
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 