Vacancy!

Attention all available adult teeth! We have a dental vacancy! This is going to make a great story for the First Little Nguyen's baby book.

The Little Nguyens were helping to sweep off the sidewalk while we were doing some yardwork this morning. As the First Little Nguyen painfully discovered, one thing you do not want to do while sweeping is walk directly behind your little brother while he is working furiously to clean the walk. The First Little Nguyen took a direct hit to the mouth, which knocked his semi-loose top front tooth clean out! After my initial panic (this would not be his first major wound to his mouth) at seeing all of that blood, he stopped crying long enough to hand me his tooth! It took a minute to sink in, but after a quick oral exam I realized, Oh! His loose tooth got knocked out! While it was a bit loose, I don't really think it was ready to come out. From the size of the gaping hole in his gum, I think it was pushed backwards significantly and it probably hurt a lot. I gave him some ice in a little baggie to suck on and the bleeding stopped right away, so I don't think the situation has reached dental emergency status as of yet. We will just need to keep it very clean until it heals or the new tooth starts to come down, whichever happens first.

My sister, Susan, and I found this great tooth box awhile back while shopping in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. We were waiting for Mom and the rest of our sisters to arrive to begin one great shopping weekend at the Mall of America. We had time to start the shopping early! Anyway, the box is great! It glows in the dark (in case the tooth fairy can't find where he has hidden it!) and has a "secret compartment" inside for him to leave his tooth. This is no girly tooth pillow...it's a high-tech tooth box! We'll see how much the tooth fairy pays for his latest dental trauma.

The First Little Nguyen's other top front tooth was taken out two years ago, so he's been without it for as long as he can remember. The other day when we noticed that the other one had become loose, we were talking about how funny it would be if he started the new school year with no front teeth. He's going to have one of those cute first grade school pictures this year...a sweet, toothless smile!