Yesterday our younger son had eight teeth pulled. This is because he will be ten years old in a month and he has lost a total of 4 teeth so far. You can see in the pictures the permanent teeth that have already grown in behind where the baby teeth were. He had taken to calling himself shark boy for a little while.

This kid has been a real trooper about this. Most kids, and adults for that matter, would have been very nervous about the whole ordeal, but he told us the other day that he couldn’t do anything about it, so he wasn’t really worried. When he returned from the dentist he looked a little worn and out of it, but he was still pretty numbed up. He was drooling and bleeding for some time, but didn’t complain at all. He was doing pretty well by dinner time, downing three bowls of soup and a milkshake, and was excited about being able to go to school today, even though we have given him the option to stay home. My wife and I again marveled at how quickly kids bounce back.

Before the procedure the dentist had predicted that the teeth would probably come out fairly easily as the roots of most baby teeth tend to dissolve as the permanent teeth push up from below. This turned out not to be the case.

His dentist called last night to check on how he was doing, which was very nice of her. She commented that she does about five of these multi-extractions a week, but this was by far one of the more difficult extractions she’s had to do. We suspect that with the permanent teeth already grown in behind these baby teeth that it was difficult to see these roots in the x-rays.

Needless to say, the tooth fairy was very generous the boy last night.