Losing Teeth and Personality Analysis

I was talking with our dentist this morning, and we got on the subject of losing baby teeth. It's interesting how this experience can give us some insight into each child's personality.

It's been many years since my two oldest first lost teeth, and I remember it being fairly uneventful. So uneventful in fact that both girls accidentally swallowed more than one tooth without realizing it. This is how these girls are. They are laid back and mellow; content to let life go by without a lot of fanfare. Of course, they are now teenagers and they are girls, so life has a certain amount of drama and trauma; but generally, they are laid back and life's little nuisances, like a tooth coming out, frequently go unnoticed.

Now, child number 3 is vastly different. His first loose tooth went untouched, literally hanging out of his mouth and across his lip by a tiny thread of flesh. It bounced up and down when he talked, hanging there and distracting his parents from any kind of conversation.

"Just wiggle it a little with your tongue," we would prod. "It will come right out."

He refused to touch it and we struggled to restrain ourselves from reaching in and pulling it out for him. Today, he is still a sort of neat freak and he is traumatized by change. The tooth coming out was a sign of change. One he would endure, but he would not encourage. He still abhors change, and he endures it, but never encourages it.

Our five year old just lost his first tooth. It took about one day. He announced that his tooth was "wiggly". We checked and conceded that yes, indeed it was wiggly. He pushed a bit more with his tongue and then cried, "GET IT OUT!"

We tried to wiggle it a little for him, but really it wasn't quite ready. As he insisted, I jokingly said, "Do you want me to just yank it out? That would hurt."

"GET IT OUT!" he persisted. His father came home that afternoon and assisted him in the removal of the wiggly tooth. He is much happier with his frontal gap than he was with the wiggler. This child is fine with change and adapts quickly, but does not tolerate any kind of unpleasantness. He has little patience and will accept anything that is reasonably proposed, even eating green vegetables and letting his dad yank out a tooth, so long as we can do it fast.

I wish now that I had paid more attention to the children's reaction to their first loose tooth because it is such a telling event. What does your child's response to these little adversaries tell you about his personality?