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Monday, June 27, 2011

The Human Jack-o-Lantern

Dane has lost 4 teeth in the last three weeks, including two since we've been at Grandpa Doughty's. The most recent one is a molar. I'm absolutely convinced that if he doesn't grow some teeth soon, the ones he has left in his mouth will end up turning sideways. He's even talking funny now, without teeth to press his tongue against. He's gained a strange lisp.

Daelyn, on the other hand, is starting Fourth Grade in the Fall and has yet to lose his first baby tooth. He thinks one is loose; Dane was trying to convince him to pull it during Church yesterday. I didn't particularly want him dripping blood from his mouth when we went up for Communion, so I banned him from pulling it until we were home. He seems to have forgotten about it now.

The Dentist always says that every child loses their teeth on their own schedule. I still have several of my baby teeth; no adult teeth replaced them, and I was lucky they were able to save the baby ones, or I'd have big gaps in my mouth. I found out recently that one of my sisters has been visiting the dentist because he's trying to save one of her baby teeth where she'll never have an adult tooth. This seems to be a very prevalent probem in our family.

It all stems from "the parents"! My father has 4 missing teeth, my mother has 3. Missing teeth is a genetic problem. I seem to have genetically inherited all 7 of the "missing family teeth". One of my sisters inherited only one. I don't know about the rest of the family, but my childrens' pediatric dentist is watching them all very carefully for genetically-missing teeth.

It might be a while before we know Dalyn's status, but we're all hoping Dane gets his adult teeth, and gets them soon. None of us are too thrilled with the idea of having a human jack-o-lantern in the family.

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