TaniaLosesATooth

ByKanikaG

EditedbyPellG

Copyright2015byKanikaG

Website:

https://sites.google.com/site/kanikagebooks/

Tania Loses A Tooth

Tania had just woken up. She was in thebathroom, groggily brushing her teeth.

Suddenly, something frightened her. Herfront tooth was shaking. Was it real? Orwas it a bad dream?

She pinched herself. Ouch! She wasdefinitely awake. That pinch really

hurt. Then why was the tooth shaking?Tania quickly rinsed her mouth and ranout of the bathroom screaming in fright.

Mama was making breakfast in thekitchen; scrambled eggs with blackolives and tomatoes. Papa was in thekitchen too. He was toasting brownbread. Mama and Papa were both startledto hear Tania shouting "Mama! Papa! Mytooth is shaking! Help! I think it isgoing to come out. What do I do?"

"Oh that!" said Papa, a little annoyed,picking up a toast he had dropped. Mamasaid, "Don't worry Tania. It isperfectly normal. The teeth you have noware baby teeth. They usually startfalling out at the age of 5 or 6 years."

"Oh!", said Tania still looking scared."What happens then? Does it hurt when itfalls out?"

"Not really -", said Mama casually. "Thetooth will shake for sometime, and thenwhen it becomes very loose it'll fallout. Don't worry about it, Honey. It'sall quite normal. We can talk more about

teeth this afternoon when you come backfrom school."

Mama's calm attitude comforted Tania andshe left for school.

On the school bus, Tania was absent-mindedly pushing at the loose tooth withher tongue . Tanisha asked, "Tania, whyare you making weird faces?"

Tania then realised what she was doingand told Tanisha about her loose tooth.

Tanisha said, "Oh yeah! Trisha lost oneof her back teeth last year. I guessI'll lose one soon too. Does it hurt?"

"No. Look I can waggle it with my tongueand it doesn't hurt at all."

Tania was the first in her class to havea loose tooth. She enjoyed waggling itand showing it to her friends. It lookedso scary but it did not hurt at all.What fun!

That afternoon, Mama was ready withpictures to explain to Tania what wasgoing on with her teeth. She said "Yourfirst tooth came out when you were 9months old. By the time you were 3 yearsold you had all your baby teeth."

"It took more than 2 years to grow allmy teeth? That is a long time."

"Yes, Honey. The first tooth to grow isusually one of these 4 front teeth. Theyare called the central incisors. Thefirst tooth you had was this front one

on the bottom. It seems like it's goingto be the first to fall off too." Mamasmiled and continued.

"These 4 teeth right next to the front 4are called lateral incisors. Lateralmeans to the side. All the incisors areused to bite. They are the teeth you useto bite in to an apple for example."

"The pointed teeth on the sides of yourmouth, right next to the incisors arethe canines."

Tania felt her canines with her fingersand said, "Aren't those the huge teeththat Kazoo has?"

"Yes, that is correct! Kazoo does havehuge canines. Most carnivorous animalslike cats, tigers and lions have largecanines. Large canines are useful totear flesh and meat."

"The last two teeth behind your caninesare your molars. They are for chewingand grinding your food."

Tania was making a weird face, so Mamaasked, "Tania what are you doing? Youlook weird."

"Oh! I am just using my tongue to countmy teeth, Mama. Every type of tooth youmentioned is there, and the correctnumber of them too. Yet, when I countthem all, there are only 20. I thoughthumans have 32 teeth. I am confused."

"Wow Tania! You are well informed! Yes,adult humans do have 32 teeth. Afteryour molars fall off they will bereplaced by teeth called premolars. Then3 more molars will grow behind thepremolars. You will get those molarslater when you grow up and your mouth islarge enough to accommodate them.

The last molar right at the back of themouth is called a wisdom tooth, becauseyou are supposed to be wise by the timeyou have it. The 4 wisdom teeth appearmuch later, usually after the age of 17.Many people get only a few of the wisdomteeth, so most adults have between 28and 32 teeth.

The next day was Saturday and Tania wasvisiting her grandparents in theevening. Tania showed Grandma andGrandpa her shaking tooth. Grandpa said,"Tania, we can tie one end of a threadto that loose tooth and the other end tothe door knob. Then we can slam the doorshut, and your tooth will come off. Thenit wont bother you any more."

Tania looked at the door in horror andpleaded, "Grandpa, please don't do that.The tooth doesn't bother me. Mama saidit would eventually get quite loose andfall off."

Grandpa did not mean to frighten Tania.He said, "Don't worry. We don't have todo it unless you want to. We can waitfor it to fall off. There is no rush.But it really doesn't hurt much. That is

how I took off my first shaking tooth."

Tania looked at Grandpa in awe. Hereally must be very brave, she thought.Grandpa saw how unhappy ha had madeTania, so he changed the subject. Heasked, "Tania, do you know about thetooth fairy."

"No", said Tania. "Who is the toothfairy?"

Grandpa said "Didn't Mama tell you? Thetooth fairy collects baby teeth. Nobodyknows what she needs them for, but shepays well for them. So when that toothof yours falls out, you should put itunder your pillow. Then while you areasleep the tooth fairy will take thetooth and leave you a little gift inreturn."

"Oh! Is she like a Santa Claus, whocollects teeth?" asked Tania excited.

"Yes I suppose she is", said Grandpa.

Just then Grandma announced dinner. Thedelicious aroma of chana masala waswafting through the air. Tania forgotall about her tooth. She enjoyed hermeal of rice, chana masala and palakpaneer with great relish.

After dinner Grandpa offered Tania atoffee. He always gave her a sweet treatafter dinner and Tania always lookedforward to it. Tania took the toffee andsucked it for some time. Then she bitinto it and while chewing it she feltsomething hard in the toffee. She tookit out of her mouth to take a look andto her great surprise, she found her owntooth stuck in the toffee!

Tania smiled. She had been so worriedabout having to tug out the tooth whenGrandpa told her about threads anddoorknobs. But the tooth came off sopainlessly, that Tania did not evenrealise it was out.

Grandpa helped Tania clean the stickytoffee off the tooth. He then wrapped itup in some cotton wool and gave it toTania. Mama, Papa and Sonia came to pick

up Tania soon after. She told them theamazing story of how her tooth came out.On the ride back home she asked Mamaabout the tooth fairy.

Mama said "Yes Tania. There is a toothfairy. You should put your tooth underyour pillow tonight and see what shegives you."

The next morning Tania found a brand newbox of water colours under her pillow.Awesome! Now, she cant wait for her nexttooth to fall out. The tooth fairy is agenerous soul, don't you think?

The chana masala image was posted by Shrie BradfordSpangler at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lo_and_behold/7840340448/

The palak paneer image was posted bygoblinbox_(queen_of_ad_hoc_bento) at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/goblinbox/16141628688/

All above images are posted under the license:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

You can find a lot of information about teeth at

https://archive.org/stream/descriptiveanato1902blac/descriptiveanato1902blac#page/94/mode/1up

and

https://archive.org/stream/carefeedingofinf00rams/carefeedingofinf00rams#page/70/mode/1up