Yank it Out

My poor little guy is having oral surgery this week.  Ugh.  I bet that's as much fun as... well, getting teeth pulled.

I miss my little guy being LITTLE and having cute little chicklet teeth.  Those cute, little, square, uniform teeth, all straight and perfect.  Little did I know back then what we would be coming up against now!

Honestly I should have known.  One of the things I learned about my hubs at the beginning of our relationship was that he was in braces for 5 years.  Something about moving in the middle of treatment or something like that caused them to stay on longer.  Eww.  I had my braces removed.  Yep, you read that right.  The only reason I even had any to begin with is the orthodontist was trying to fix my TMJ (little did I know what I really needed was THERAPY to stop clenching my teeth...).  They went on when I turned 16 and I had them removed the month before Jeremy was due to be born because I was NOT going to have braces on my teeth with a baby!  Totally common thought process, I realize.  I couldn't have waited to get PREGNANT until after the braces were off....

Hubs had a terrible mouth to work with.  Teeth overlapping, lots of extractions.  Ugh.  So I should have expected this.

When Coop entered kindergarten, he had all of his baby teeth.  As we moved through 1st and 2nd grade and we were losing teeth at a MUCH slower rate than the rest of his friends, I figured it was his super teeth strength due to all the calcium he gets (the boy is 10 and still drinks 3 to 4 gallons of milk A WEEK).  He has never had a cavity.  We have been so incredibly lucky from so many standpoints.  My only fear was that he would stop believing in the tooth fairy before the baby teeth fell out!

Realizing he still has baby teeth in his mouth still, I went ahead and made a preemptive orthodontist appointment to see where we stand.  It is inevitable he will need braces at some point simply because his teeth are not quite even.  I didn't really expect to hear what we did though.

It appears he has some baby teeth, the big chompers, in the back that never really grew in.  Four of them.  They sit just above the gum line really.  They aren't really very far up over the gums.  They just never moved up and out like they were supposed to.  So now we have to pull them out.  Give the permanent teeth some room to come in where they are supposed to be.

Oh, and he has to have two more teeth pulled as well.  Might as well, while we are in there.  Because he has a giant overbite that will require rubber bands and headgear and all kinds of stuff he will hate.

Poor buddy.  

So hold on tight, Coopster.  We're here for you, ibuprofen in hand!  If that doesn't work we will borrow some of Nana's whiskey and rub it on your gums.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

Happy Tuesday, friends!
Jen