Incidentally, in relation to my blogging theme this year which is “roots”, my son’s milk tooth had to be pulled off by the dentist, last week. His primary tooth ( milk tooth) did not fall on its own. It loosen slightly but it did not budge.
The root of the temporary tooth, did not naturally dissolve like it was supposed to. ( or root resorption)
My son’s dentist, once mentioned that the roots of the milk/baby teeth would naturally melt away, to accommodate the set of new teeth that would be pushing their way through. ( -a process they pertain to as exfoliation.)
In other words, as a permanent tooth erupts, the temporary tooth should fall off.
However, in my son’s case, we already saw the replacement tooth pushing its way up -emerging right behind the milk tooth that it was supposed to replace.
We had to visit the dentist for that. It was also the first time my son was injected with anesthesia.
The replacement tooth was too big. It could not erupt naturally under the milk tooth. It took a different course- at the back. It was too big that two sets of milk teeth had to be pulled out, for the heir, er, tooth-apparent.
During the time when my son felt his tooth move and wiggle, I thought of these:
If you know the correlation between these two and my son’s milk tooth, you are my sibling from another mother.
And for those who do not, that thread would be for tying around the milk tooth and pulling it, while vinegar is for gargling afterwards. Yeah man!
( like how my mother used to do with our milk teeth when my siblings and I were younger.)
Good thing, we went to the dentist, no thread could wrestle that root.
Having gone to the dentist, is evident of the extreme difference between my son and I’s childhood.
He sat on a dentist chair while I, on our long narra table.
His was a glass of water while mine was vinegar.
While our childhood dental experiences had nothing to do with sewing, he had to face a needle while I dealt with a thread.
But from this ordinary experience, I picked up a bit of wisdom, though. Though weak the temporary tooth might have looked, still, no big and huge important one could make it budge.
My son’s unyielding milk tooth highly demonstrated the importance of ones roots:
If we are deeply rooted as a person, no matter how great the catalyst might be or however strong the change may be, we will be hard to replace…because…of our roots!
Here’s to always remembering where we came from.
Here’s to the joy of knowing that we are who we are today because of where we came from yesterday.
Here’s to family! ( and moms that pulled our teeth with a thread and given us a glass of vinegar to gargle with.)
