I love my kids and I love my parents, but somewhere people don’t understand a fear I have deep down inside of me. I think it has to do with my mother pulling my teeth when I was young. She tried all the made for sitcom methods of tooth extraction. I really did have my tooth tied to a door knob and other ingenious devices. None of those things worked. The last time I went to her about a loose tooth she came at me with a pair of pliers. Now you have to understand this. When I got my first loose tooth my mother was a dental assistant. You would think that she would have a leg up on other mothers out there. I’m thinking her end goal was to have me deal with my own loose teeth. When she came at me with the pliars I ran the other way and only told her about my teeth after the fact.
At some point during all of this I watched the movie The Fly and in that movie there is a scene where Jeff Goldblum’s teeth start falling out. Enter my biggest phobia. I have plenty of dreams that others might find scary but I enjoy them. They are violent and down right freaky, but they don’t bother me. Then I’ll have dreams where my teeth fall out and I wake up terrified.
Enter Saturday night. I was at the church for the Saturday night youth event we have each week and my wife calls to tell me about my daughter getting her first loose tooth. She did it the same way I got my first loose tooth, by biting into an apple. Actually my tooth came out into the apple and her’s was just loosened, but close enough (I told you that we tried every sitcom method of tooth extraction). My kids were with my mom and dad so the question was I wanted to pull it or to let my mom. I was ok with letting my mom yank her grandchild’s tooth. They learned a great method after all the experiments on me, but they decided against because it was a “right of passage.” I got home much too late to pull the tooth so Sunday morning I checked it and it wasn’t ready anyway. Sunday night I set myself and got to work.
If your kids are all grown up you might let them know about this for their kids. If your kids are still loosing teeth it’s time to learn the easy removal trick. Ready? Floss. It’s not what you think though. You make a loop and then slip that loop over the tooth. The hardest part is keeping the loop at the very bottom. If the tooth is ready you can tip it forward so the edge of the loop is under the tooth on the back. Then just pull the loop closed and the tooth pops right out. 25 years later your kid doesn’t still have a phobia.
The tooth came out with out a problem and my daughter wanted me to pull her other tooth that had come loose that day. It wasn’t ready yet so guess what I’m doing tonight?
I guess being a good dad sometimes means tackling your biggest fears.
So tonight I’m gonna take the kids to my parent’s.
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I tried the floss thing with my kiddo, but the floss just kept slipping off. Darn it all. I just keep using excuses to get other people to pull out her teeth now. Anyone who is standing around will do. I'm a giver that way.
The trick is to get the floss under the tooth so it can't slip, but it can be awkward. Another fun story, my mom says her dad just flicked them out and they would fly across the room.
Hmmm- I’ve always heard tooth loss in a dream can be interpreted as feeling powerless or losing control. I’ve had those dreams and they are way freaky… I can’t imagine having them all the time.
I wouldn't say I have that dream all the time, or even often but I really hate them.
Nice ending touch there about taking your kids to your parents place. :>)
I've never had a dream like that. I've had many scary dreams, but none that involved my teeth falling out, or anyone else's for that matter.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
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Yeah, I would love to let them deal with it, but unfortunately I'll be pulling another tooth tonight. You are fortunate that you haven't had those dreams. Of course, most people probably call my normal dreams nightmares but they don't scare me so I guess I'm pretty fortunate too.
RB has that dream about losing his teeth all the time. Perhaps it has something to do with having a career that enables a half million people see your teeth every night. I'll bet even being in front of a few dozen people would plant that tooth-loss seed in your head, too.
I’ve had these dreams long before any public speaking. I can see how others might have that trigger though.
I remember as a kid I would allow no one near that first tooth. It literally fell out all by itself.
I got bolder as time went buy and would pull my own teeth. At the first sign of looseness they would get wiggled all day until they came out.
No One EVER pulled my teeth out.
My eldest is 3 so I still have a year or two till I have to face it as a parent.
I also think the dreams about teeth falling out are the scariest I have, by virtue that I remember them clearly.
I have also heard that they are related to feelings of powerless…. well I would rather feel powerless than have all my teeth fall out.
(:SB><