Both of Annabel’s front teeth have been loose for a few weeks, with the one on the left a bit further along. She wiggled it absent-mindedly with her tongue, which was good for making it looser but had the undesired effect of pushing the tooth to the right, into her other front tooth. It looked…weird. But it wasn’t bothering her, and it wasn’t permanent, so I didn’t worry about it.

Yesterday, Annabel and I were looking at something together on the couch when I looked over at her and saw that she had blood in her mouth. After examining her, I saw that the blood was coming from her front teeth. I wiped it up with a paper towel, but the blood just kept coming…and coming…and coming. She looked like a vampire who’d eaten too much. It was really gross.

Of course, while it was bleeding she was, hmmm…not pleased. She didn’t want me to touch it, or pull it, or breathe on it. She asked me for a wet wash cloth, and she’d alternate biting on it and wiggling her tooth with it. Meanwhile, she just kept bleeding, even when she wasn’t touching the tooth. After an hour of non-stop bleeding, I realized I was out of my depth. The tooth wasn’t loose enough for me to pull out myself (not that she would have let me), so I told her we had to go to the dentist.

You can imagine how that went over.

During the entire drive to the dentist, Annabel voiced her displeasure over the turn of events. But as soon as we walked into the dentist’s office, she was like, “Ohh, toys!” and suddenly she was happy. Kids and their whiplash emotions, man. While we sat in the waiting room, Annabel tried to make friends with the stream of kids coming in for appointments…seemingly forgetting that she had a massively bloody washcloth hanging from her mouth. The kids were all looking at it like:

Emma_Stone_say_ew

Only Annabel would try to make friends while bleeding from her mouth.

After the dentist examined her, it was determined that the tooth was pinching some gum-root-doodad (obviously the technical term) and it should come out. The dental assistant said to me, “We’ll numb her up to remove it, do you want to use nitrous?” and I was like, “Yes. FOR ME.” They wouldn’t let me have any, which I thought was very unfair.

Other than meanly hoarding the nitrous, I was soooo impressed with the dental staff. They numbed Annabel up without her even realizing that they used needles. That’s a good thing because she would have lost. her. mind. if she’d known! She was so brave, though. I asked her if she wanted me to hold her hand and she said, “No, I’m good. You can just sit over there.” Oh okay, then I’ll just sit over there.

The extraction was done in just a few minutes, and I was left with a kid whose smile had been changed forever.

Lost a front tooth!

As you can see, she is real upset about it.

bye front tooth

That smile is pretty cute, but it’s going to take some getting used to.

On the drive home she said, “Mom! The kids at school said that when the dentist helps you lose a tooth, the tooth fairy brings you more money!!”

UGGGH KIDS AT SCHOOL. So now on top of having to PAY to have the dentist take out a tooth she would have lost FOR FREE in the next few days, I am expected to give her more money than usual for her pain and suffering?! Uh, no.

Kids are such a scam.