The tale of wiggly tooth and gummy gum.

SS lost another tooth, and it was a long time coming, because she was driving us nuts complaining about the wiggly tooth. It was wiggly way before she lost the bottom tooth on the right side of her mouth (left side on the pic). Even though she said she was not doing intentionally the girl was constantly messing with that tooth during her waking hours. She was actually almost asleep when she nonchalantly spit it out, then told me how it just happened to fall. I was thankful she didn't swallow the thing altogether. But you know, Tooth Fairy money is too good to let that happen.

The the gum was rather swollen, we are convinced as a direct result of all the so called accidental tongue pushing, and finger wiggling SS had done for so long. She was really upset about the protruding gum, and it looked like she was headed to a miserable meltdown. Those are never welcomed, but are really horrific at bedtime. The up side was that we reminded SS the Tooth Fairy only leaves money on the child's bed, and only if the child is sleeping on said bed. It was good to get her out of our room without pouting or complaining. That girl jetted out of our bed and room in record time.

But the next morning the whining resumed with constant reminders of how awful the gum looked. P tried to ease her mind saying that was the adult tooth coming out. I was highly skeptical but kept my mouth shut hoping it did the trick. Nope, SS inherited Mami's ability about not letting go of a thought/subject. The tooth "fell out" Wednesday night, full blown obsessing over the gum started on Thursday morning, and SS had an already scheduled dental appointment for a teeth cleaning Monday after school. Lord have mercy, we were going to suffer through her obsession for five days. Yes five, because Monday morning counted, and the afternoon ride to the dentist's office counted as well. 

What made it more frustrating is that SS did not buy it was her tooth coming through, but would not allow us to touch her gum, and now all of a sudden, would not touch her gum to feel if the imaginary tooth was coming through.  After messing so much with that wiggly tooth, the gum was off limits. We are never going to figure out how that child's brain works. But it does work in mysterious ways. And the mysterious way this time was that she refused to believe the swelling would go down, because how would we know about such complicated matters that keep her up at night?

Finally, the much anticipated appointment. And once again SS was afraid of going, and we went through the whole, Oh I am so scared routine. Then once at the office she sat on that chair for X-rays on her own, I actually took that picture from quite far, thus the poor quality. 

Happy girl, because Dr. Lee explained all that wiggling of the tooth, and the time it took for that stubborn tooth to "fall out" on its "own", gave SS what is called in medical terminology as a "gummy gum." And that was that, because SS is a tough customer, and since we do not have MD or DDS next to our names she would not settle for our slack jawed yokel opinions. Dr. Lee recommended she massage the gum with her clean fingers or her tongue. But threw in that if it is still swollen in two months to make an appointment.

SS's gummy gum is significantly less swollen, problem almost solved. Now on to her next crisis. Behold the woes of an eight year old. I just can't help but wince at our future orthodontic bills whenever I look at SS's teeth. And of course the implant for the missing adult tooth.