March 21, 2005 - Monday
I called the dentist this morning about Jeremy's missing tooth. I can't say we weren't particularly worried about it, but it seemed prudent to at least ask a professional how weird it is for a 3-year-old to lose a tooth. The first question I got, and I got it from everyone I spoke with, was "does he have an older sibling?" Well, yes, but the point was that younger siblings sometimes start knocking their own teeth out from jealousy. Since Harry hasn't lost a tooth yet, they said maybe I ought to bring him in for a quick x-ray.

Jeremy was a trooper and didn't let on much if he was worried. He probably was a little, especially when they put the big x-ray lens up to his chin and covered him with the radiation apron, but the dentist did a nice job introducing it as a "camera" too. In fact, after the x-ray was developed Jeremy and I had a chance to look at the picture of inside Jeremy's teeth before the dentist came back.

The verdict was that the lost tooth was just a strange anomaly. The fallen tooth, which I brought in, didn't have a root and the x-ray showed there was no root left in his gum and that's just the way it would be if it were to fall out in the normal course of development. Apparently, if I understood correctly, the adult teeth growing below the baby teeth have some chemical component that ruminates the root of the baby tooth, eventually causing that tooth to become loose and fall out. It's possible that some trauma to a tooth might cause the rumination to begin early (I didn't ask about this, but I wonder if Jeremy's finger sucking might have done that kind of thing), but there is no way to know in this case this time. Anyway, the x-ray looked normal, but Jeremy will probably just have a space in his teeth for a couple of years..


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