Lucy Comes Out Swinging

Just days before we left for vacation back at the end of May, Lucy was playing across the street with one of the two other girls in our neighborhood (serious shortage of little kids on this block...except at my house, of course). Paige - the neighbor girl - walked through the swing set, pushing the swing up and out of her way. Lucy followed her, and caught the swing square in the teeth. She came home bleeding profusely and crying even more; Paige escorting her and looking like she thought I was going to sue her or something. I gave her a wet washcloth with ice cubes in it to put on her mouth. We looked at her teeth and her gums - it was her bottom two front teeth - everything was intact but swollen. I made a mental note to set a dentist appointment, just to be sure, and then promptly forgot about it.



Then, we left on vacation. Lucy lost one of the them towards the end, in Tucson. Then she lost-lost it (as in, can't find it and give it to the Tooth Fairy), darn it. And after we got home - like two days after we got home - she started complaining that the remaining one was hurting her. So I called the dentist promptly, and got her in on an emergency visit that afternoon. (side note: when Mark got home for his lunch break, I told him she had an appointment. He said, "oh, she doesn't need a dentist!" and promptly pulled it out of her mouth...I took her in anyway, mostly because I felt guilty that I had blown it off back in May when she first caught the swing with her teeth.)

I explained to Dr. Gardner the whole story. He looked at everything, and the x-rays. Apparently, there's no problem at all. Lucy's adult teeth are already growing in, and chances are good that those two teeth were already a little loose before the swing took a whack at her. Then he showed me a couple more that are a little wiggly. Huh. Go figure. She's just barely six, so I wasn't expecting loose teeth for several more months, if not a year (that's what Hyrum and Gabba did, after all). But the good doctor said she was right on track. And I'm glad. Because just this Tuesday, we were visiting with some friends, and one of their kids whacked Lucy in the face and knocked another tooth loose. So much for corn on the cob this summer, eh?