Tooth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Tonight my middle babybird came to his dad and said, "I think my tooth is broken." Dad looked, and then did what all responsible dads do in the face of medical crisis... he called for a second opinion! (Mamabird's.)

We got out the flashlight and poked around in the babybird's mouth. It just looked... strange. There was a little bleeding, and a definite split in the tooth. Like someone had taken a chisel and driven it down one side of the tooth... but it wasn't broken in half. More like a little piece was carved off the side and just kind of hanging there. And it wasn't just gushing blood, like I'd have thought. There were no screams or even moans of pain. And, weirdest of all, there had been no precipitating event. You know... no tooth meets steakbone and steakbone wins. No flying baseballs landing in the mouth. No falling off the trampoline while biting down on a Jolly Rancher. No, he just came up to Dad and said, "My tooth feels like it's broken."

Well, teeth don't just break, right? Or do they? THIS was a question for... Grandpa Doc!

Grandpa Doc is my dad. He used to be a dentist, before years of practice ruined his back and he had to retire. I just did not appreciate, growing up, how useful it would be to have a dentist for a father... until I was a Mamabird. Boys are hard on their teeth, what with bike ramps and scooter accidents and tree-climbing and zip-line zipping and all those adventures they insist on having. Many's the time we've loaded up for an impromptu, after-hours visit to our own personal dental professional. (He never minds. In fact, he often buys pizza. Does your dentist do this for YOU?)

Well, tonight Doc solved the mystery in about, oh, ten seconds. He sat not-so-little grandson down in his lap, adjusted the lamp, peered in at the mystery tooth and said, "That's not a broken tooth. That's a permanent tooth trying to come in around the baby tooth." Well, who knew! Apparently the way baby teeth fall out is that the permanent tooth slowly erodes the root of the baby tooth as it pushes its way up through the gums. As the baby tooth's roots wear down, the tooth gets loose and finally falls out, making room for the permanent resident. But if the permanent tooth is not lined up just so with the baby tooth, the roots don't erode, and you end up with the top tooth pushing through RIGHT BESIDE the existing tooth in such a way that it looks like one tooth with a rift down the side.

You're lucky that babybird is in bed right now, or you'd be treated to a picture of the mystery tooth, bloody gum and all. I just think the whole thing is pretty fascinating. Especially now that we're not talking major pain and suffering for my poor little boy! Of course, he still has to have a tooth pulled. That's never fun. But it sure beats the heck out of a broken permanent tooth, right?