Baby Teeth
Thoughts on life’s now and later policy
Last week, I took the twins to their biannual dentist check up. I lied and said we floss regularly.
Kindergarten dental x-rays are something out of an old horror movie: bright white baby teeth stalked by large silver ghosts, fully grown and waiting in the wings. I made a dumb joke to the hygienist about shark teeth, and she forced a laugh. “Actually, it’s not uncommon for adult teeth to come in behind the row of primary teeth before they fall out. Teeth will take the path of least resistance.”
She went on to inform me, in fact, that our adult teeth start developing around six weeks in utero. “All of us are born with both full sets of tooth buds inside our jaws. There’s 20 milk teeth and then usually 32 secondary.”
You do the math: that’s 20 plus 32, times two, all growing inside of the humans that were growing inside of me before they even took their first breaths.
At Thursday ballet, us moms count lost teeth before class. Our girls all smile like chipped teacups. One lady sprays glitter over dollar bills before tucking them under her kid’s pillow. Another pulled back her daughter’s lips to show me the grown-up replacement standing tall behind a wiggly baby tooth. “The doctor’ll pull it in two weeks if it doesn’t fall out on it’s own.”
