Sweet Tooth
As a child, I always enjoyed my sweets and I had the funds to purchase as much as I possibly could eat. I would demolish a pack of Tic-Tacs in seconds, Airheads would be slapped down into a ball to be eaten faster, and PEZ dispensers aren't fast enough to feed my appetite. Though I'm sure Butler Blue II (shown above) would have dominated me in a eating contest though. Mixed with lazy dental hygiene as a child, I had terribly teeth and many cavities. I lost my baby teeth very early compared to my peers; I lost my last baby tooth at the age of 9 which is about two to three younger than most children. My experiences of losing teeth were very mixed.
On rare occasions, the tooth would just become loosened and fall off. Majority of the time, the tooth would loosen and refuse to fall off, sometimes to the point where it be tilted a full 90 degrees (sometimes forward sometimes backwards). It was definitely fun playing with the loose teeth with my tongue especially during spelling lessons or when the math was too simple in elementary school. The exploration of the loose, sensitive, and sometimes bloody socket was always exhilarating; it the possibility of leading to death was the risk I was taking. Sometimes I went deep enough to get into my own nerves! You know how in televisions shows, the cartoon character ties his loose tooth to a door and shuts the door to pull it out? Well, I've done it and it was probably one of the most horrifying experiences in my life. But you know what worse? It's worse is someone else is controlling the string tied to your loose teeth; at least with the door, you control your fate and its timing. The person has full control of your emotions and it becomes just a game for them; I'm not exactly how often this happened but I'm confident that it happened at a minimun of 4 times.
And a couple of times, I put those rotten, sometimes very dark, baby teeth under my pillow. Being a innocent and very gullible child, I actually believed in the Tooth Fairy. And many times, I would get dollars-worth of money in coins (much of them were pennies). There was something wrong with this: Why would the Tooth Fairy use clinky coins in exchange for the teeth and try to not wake me up? My logic was that I was one of the heaviest sleepers and I was the only who the fairy could give coins to. A few years later, I realized that it was most likely one of my siblings being kind since my parents didn't know of the story of the Tooth Fairy. I have the best siblings!
For those who know me, I have an charming and beautiful smile. And the teeth is an significant aspect of the smile. One thing you'll notice about my teeth is that they are large; I'm not sure if it's because my teeth are actually larger than life (especially my sharp canine teeth) or that my mouth is tiny. Either way, it looks great in my opinion. But did you know the average person has 28 teeth or 32 teeth including the wisdom teeth? Probably. But did you know that I only have 24? Yup, it's true! I had both of my mandibular first premolars out and both of my maxillary first premolars out in order to straighten out my teeth for those ugly braces. Then, I have all of my wisdom teeth taken out. I am proud to say that I only had Novocain for two for two of my wisdom teeth (this included stitches). The six other teeth was all natural; it was old-fashioned crushing, pressure, and yanking. I absolutely loved the sound of my teeth be crushed to bits!
If I could change something about my past, changing my dental hygiene growing up would definitely high on the list. I wouldn't have those dreams where my teeth disintegrate into dust while eating my favorite foods...