She Must Like Me!

The tooth fairy visited Annie for the first time ever about a week-and-a-half ago! It was terribly exciting, as Annie (and the rest of us) have been waiting patiently (and then not-so-patiently) since last February for at least one of her wiggly bottom teeth to fall out.

Annie turned into a little shark when her two bottom adult teeth erupted over a year ago. At about that time, our family dentist said, "Don't worry, the two bottom baby teeth will fall out and then her new teeth (which are rather out of line with the rest of her bottom teeth) will be pushed forward by her tongue. But why don't you go to the dental clinic at Children's Mercy Hospital just to see what they say."

Last February, the resident dentist at Children's Mercy took x-rays and said, "Oh yes, the roots of her two bottom baby teeth are starting to disintegrate. They should fall out in a few months. But come back in August if they are still there and we'll pull them out."

Fast-forward to May: at Annie's next semi-annual check-up, our dentist felt confident we wouldn't be seeing the pediatric dentist again in August. Throughout the summer, Annie's two bottom teeth were getting looser and looser. By the time August rolled around , I figured it was probably just a matter of weeks before at least one of those little pearls found its way out of Annie's mouth.

We bid summer farewell with those two stubborn little teeth still intact! I figured we were close enough to Annie's next regular dental appointment, and those teeth would surely be out by then anyway, so I decided not to call the pediatric dental clinic. At the end of November, we again visited our family dentist. She peered into Annie's mouth and said, "Let me give you the name of a pediatric periodontist." Being the wonderful dentist that she is, Dr. Hung actually called her colleague and discussed Annie's stubborn teeth and they decided Dr. Hung should just go ahead and grab a pair of pliers and YANK!

Okay, it didn't really happen quite like that. We scheduled another appointment for Annie (at the end of December) and she got numbed up and had a great big needle poke her lower gum (um, that was fun. Not!) and then the pliers came out and Dr. Hung went YANK!!!


But here's the good part: Lots of teeth for the Tooth Fairy mean lots of money, right? When Annie (after a little cajoling) decided to see if the Tooth Fairy had stopped by, she was thrilled with all the jingly gold coins clinking against each other in the little organza pouch left behind by the beneficent fairy. In fact, Annie jangled her money and exclaimed about the Tooth Fairy, "She must like me!"