Another Milestone on the Road to Growing Up
A Week Ago being silly prior to getting a haircut -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — full exif
A Week Ago
being silly prior to getting a haircut
NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Yesterday after he discovered adult teeth coming in behind his lower-front teeth -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO 4000 — full exif
Yesterday
after he discovered adult teeth coming in behind his lower-front teeth
(out of focus, sorry) Today having some ice cream, because... -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
(out of focus, sorry)
Today
having some ice cream, because...
Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2800 — full exif

Yesterday morning, Anthony was all excited to tell me some “good news for everyone!”. He had discovered adult teeth poking out behind his front-lower incisors. Many of his classmates have already started losing their baby teeth – a big step toward being oniichan (a “big kid”) – so he's been eagerly awaiting the event.

For my part, I was shocked at how far behind his baby teeth the adult teeth had come in. I don't know what's supposed to be normal, but it just felt very wrong. I didn't let on to him about that worry, of course, so I shared in his excitement. He was also excited because he had heard about a really cool dentist with chocolate-flavored medicine, and you can watch a TV on the ceiling, and “it doesn't hurt at all”. He was positively giddy at the thought of visiting such a fun place.

Fumie and I were positively giddy that he wasn't screaming and crying.

That dentist was closed yesterday, but this morning, Fumie was able to finagle a reservation for this afternoon, and so we went.

The questionnaire Fumie filled out when we got there had all the standard new-patient questions, and also a bunch like the name of his teacher, school, friends, favorite foods, hobbies, etc. This was made available to the doctor when Anthony was brought in and was actually set on Anthony's chest so that the doctor could see it at a glance while working on Anthony, allowing him to chat up Anthony with familiar, calming things.

Just half an hour later, Anthony was done. He was a bit scared about what had gone on, but much of it was likely because he didn't know what had gone on: he didn't realize that his teeth had been pulled until I told him.

I don't remember what it was like when I was a kid, but in Japan, losing your baby teeth is a huge moment of pride for the kid... a sign that they're growing up. Everyone was congratulating him.

I brought some of my American culture: after clearing it with the nurse, I promised Anthony ice cream.... loads of ice cream. That helped later as the anesthesia started to wear off during the drive home.

Anthony's Baby Teeth -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2009 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Anthony's Baby Teeth
The Same Teeth 5 years, 8 months, 6 days ago, when Anthony was 6½ months old -- http://regex.info/blog/
The Same Teeth
5 years, 8 months, 6 days ago, when Anthony was 6½ months old

This milestone in growing up comes less than a week after Anthony makes his first trip to the store all by himself.


All 7 comments so far, oldest first...

We just had the same experience last year of having to have teeth pulled because they were coming in behind the old ones. Your Anthony is such a sweety and seems to have taken the whole thing in stride. Good for him. 😉

— comment by Avlor on February 20th, 2009 at 11:00pm JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink

Another great story! Thank you for sharing!

— comment by Doug Wilson on February 20th, 2009 at 11:42pm JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink

My almost 6 year old also had the same experience this month. 2 adult teeth coming out back just like Anthony. We too were scared that they are so far back. We rushed to dentist but he was not worried at all. He said tongue will automatically push them out at right spot. He also did not take out baby teeth and wanted them to fall out on their own. So for a while he had parallel sets sitting side by side. Eventually in few weeks the baby teeth fell but they were so tiny like 2 pearls..not like ones seen here of A. I will probably check with Dentist again about this. Thanks for sharing.

The doc today also wasn’t worried, and indicated that it was an option to leave them and it’d probably be okay. But Fumie had issues after the same thing happened to her teeth, so with that bit of family history, we just had the doc pull ’em. —Jeffrey

— comment by Sonal on February 21st, 2009 at 12:42am JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink

The roots on the baby teeth look long so I wonder how long it would have taken to fall out on their own. One root appears broken. Did the dentist have a difficult time with that tooth?

Thanks for sharing another milestone.

* from Honolulu

The doctor didn’t mention anything about it. I had the impression that everything went just fine. I hope it did. —Jeffrey

— comment by Diane on February 21st, 2009 at 3:28am JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink

Yikes! What an interesting story. It was a new thing to me and my reaction was the same as yours, Jeff. It was reassuring to read Sonal’s post. So, Jeff, are you going to introduce him to another American tradition… the Tooth Fairy?

— comment by Grandma Friedl on February 21st, 2009 at 3:32am JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink

Here is our tooth fairy story – We wanted to celebrate this milestone with Arush (our son) and so kept $5 for first tooth. Which he used wisely and bought 3 Magic tree house books. For second tooth he hoped it would be $10 so he can buy 6 more books. Tooth fairy obliged to such wise expectations. But when he started waiting for more teeth to fall out..we took a trip to library with him !

— comment by Sonal on February 21st, 2009 at 3:51am JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink

I must say, I noticed the exact same thing as Diane did about the teeth. One of them definitely looks broken.

On the other hand, I don’t remember my teeth ever having roots that long – although granted it was a long time ago and I don’t really remember my baby teeth full stop!

I hope everything went okay.

— comment by Thorf on February 23rd, 2009 at 5:28pm JST (15 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink
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