Takin' One for the Team

At my son's cleaning visit, the dentist recommended I take my son to see an orthodontist.  I wasn't surprised really.  Unfortunately for him (and our bank account), he has a curse courtesy of hubby and me.  You see, we both have small mouths.  I also cursed my son with rather large teeth.  Large teeth in a small mouth is not a good mix. 
In fact, I was expecting the orthodontist to recommend that we needed to start appliances immediately.  What he recommended was that we have 2 teeth removed sooner rather than later so that his teeth could shift around before they started to permanently attach in their current locations.  One of those teeth was already loose but was behind the adult tooth.  This made it hard to wiggle and get the tooth out.  So the orthodontist recommended he chew on something like taffy or Starburst. 

Say what?!?  Yep.  The orthodontist recommended that he eat candy to get his loose tooth out.  We scheduled the tooth removal for a couple weeks after the orthodontist visit (the dentist was busy and it would give us more time to get the loose tooth out).  The first three nights after the orthodontist appointment my son diligently age his Starbursts.  They loosened the tooth some but it just didn't seem like it was going to come out.  Life got in the way for a while and we didn't really focus on the tooth until the night before the appointment to have them removed.

We got home late from a friends house (as in 10:30).  My son asked if he could try the Starburst one more time.  At first I told him no because I didn't want him to get sugared up before bed.  He reminded me that if he didn't get it out on his own it would cost me more money.  And you know what, he was earnest in wanting to save me money. 

As my regular readers are aware, my family has been spending lots of money on dental work as of late.  My daughter had 10 fillings, Hubby had 2, and I had 2 as well.  All within the last 7 months or so.  Luckily my son has been cavity free.  But he knows how expensive all this has been.

So I gave in and let him try one last time.  We had one last 2 pack of Starburst left, and although he winced a few times with the first one, it didn't do much other than loosen it up a little.

But that second one... well, the tooth came out!  Not without some pain.  Oh, and the tooth got stuck in the Starburst and he accidentally bit into it and then swallowed it.  Oops!  Guess we found the down side  :-)

Who knew that Starbust could save money on dental work?  How much money you ask?  According to the dentist's office $140.  So what did I do... I took him to Wendy's to get a Frosty on the way home as a thank you for saving me money and for being such a good patient with the one tooth that was removed.