Shark Teeth Shocker

I have never heard of shark teeth in children until I saw this shocker in my own son's mouth!! See for yourself the picture I took of his mouth. You bet I was scared out of my wits when I saw it and anxiety and worry started creeping into me, I felt butterflies in my stomach, I kid you not! What if his baby teeth won't fall off, ever?! What if they fall off but too late and his permanent teeth would be uneven? He wouldn't have 'perfect' teeth, that hurts me and I was really worried. I was already talking about bringing him to the dentist the next day. My hubby was just as clueless as me. Instead my son was the one trying to console me (and also trying to talk his way out of a visit to the dentist).

Thank you, whoever invented the Internet, for with some googling, I found that it is not that uncommon (about 10% of children may have this) and this is called shark teeth (or the correct technical term, lingually erupting mandibular incisors). I also found a few reassuring articles by dentists which help me understand the matter at hand and rest my anxious heart, a little. So if you are a parent to these 10% of children, you may find these articles helpful (Link 1, Link 2).

Although I am not as worried but I am still worried. If you are a parent, you would understand. And if you are a parent to more than one child, you will also understand how it feels when anything happens to any one of your children. You will be super worried, no matter which child it is. Your heart aches for each one of them, just the same. You may not treat them exactly the same way because they are all different, yet your heart aches the same for them. I think now I can understand how my parents felt when they worry for me or any of my sibblings. This is something so wonderous, all parents feel the same way about their children.

There may be times when disagreements crack the relationships between parents and their kids, but deep in each other's heart, this universal family love can never be broken. We just need to keep mending it. Aptly, this Sunday we just celebrated the Holy Family in church and even made a procession with the Holy Family statues in town. I don't know why the discovering of shark teeth in my son's mouth could make me think of all this, may be that's how God works. HE wants to remind me of my love for my children, the love of my parents for my sibblings and I, and the love of my mother-in-law for one of her daughters, in particular.

I pray for guidance so that I can be the one holding the family together and the strong one giving each one of them the support whenever they need it. When my kids become terrible teens in 10 years and they 'hate' their mummy, I hope that they can read this article which their mummy wrote and understand that mummy loves them no matter what.

For now, I want to say "Mummy loves you, Eron. Mummy will do everything to make sure your teeth will grow out nicely."