Extraction

Emma had to have her two bottom baby teeth pulled last Thursday:

 The larger tooth in the back started appearing near the end of the last school year so I made an appointment with a new pediatric dentist.  She said it was very common and it should eventually cause the baby tooth to come out.  She said that it was our choice if we wanted it to come out that day or wait for it to come out on its own, but that if the "adult" tooth had become level with the baby tooth, then they would need to extract it.  

So summer came and went and her tooth never fell out, and the other shark tooth appeared, so we made an appointment to have her teeth pulled.  The dentist had assured me that it was not painful - that they rubbed numbing gel on her gums and wiggled it right out. 

They used laughing gas to calm her nerves and used numbing gel on her gums.  What I didn't expect was that they numbed her gums with a shot as well and Emma panicked at the initial pain - but they encouraged her to breathe through her nose to calm down and were able to prick her again to get the rest of the medicine in her.  The rest happened pretty fast.  They "traced" her teeth with one tooth and then literally used plyers to wiggle and pull them out.  The dentist talked to Emma the whole time.  She named the easy tooth Opal and she wiggled and danced out easy, but the stubborn tooth, Petunia, needed Emma's help wiggling.  So after Emma wiggled her hands, feet and self, Petunia came right on out.  You can see how ready Opal was to come out, the root was pretty much gone and we only needed a few more days at home for it to come out on its own.  Petunia on the other hand still had the full root and was no where near ready to come in and definitely needed pulling!  

She was pretty sore for a little bit afterward.  I had promised ice cream as a reward and she couldn't even eat it.  But Brittany and Kayla came over later and all was better! Here is what the wounds look like:

And here is her new smile:

OK - so that smile is a little psycho but it gives you an idea :)  I was surprised how much it affected me.  I was kind of excited; she was losing her first teeth - it was a brand new milestone, but once they were gone I was pretty sad and I had not been expecting me to feel that way at all. 

She says it feels weird to have her teeth gone and she does all kinds of tricks with her tongue in the empty slot, but I think she was excited.  She liked the visit from the tooth fairy - $5 a tooth!  

The dentist said that now her bottom teeth are gone, it should make room for her other teeth to loosen and come out on their own, so we'll pray that we won't need anymore help!  And her top teeth have a little more space than the bottom - so hopefully we'll only be seeing the dentist twice a year for cleanings! This was one experience that I don't want to have to redo!