Learning Experience 2: Avoid Ice

My family is always a good catalyst for a new learning experience. Because we are all active and adventurous something different or exciting is on the verge of happening at all times. Thanksgiving break was just another example of the typical excitement I experience every time I go back home to Colorado.

This Thanksgiving break was record setting. First, there was snow set to fall on Thanksgiving Day, an incident that only happens 12% of the time. Second, the amount of snow we received far outpaced the forecast, with six inches that accumulated on Wednesday night in combination with at least another eight to ten inches that fell Thursday during the day. Now, I do live in the mountains at 8500 feet above sea level, so this much snow was not a surprise for us; we were well prepared and knew what icy areas of my insanely steep driveway to avoid. My eight year old cousin did not know these spots.

As usual, my brothers, uncle, and dog were out messing around in the snowy driveway after a enjoying a nice Thanksgiving meal with the rest of my family. My eight year old cousin, Torin, also known as my brothers’ pesky shadow, wanted to join. Hesitantly, they allowed him to join in on the fun, while clearly warning him to avoid this particular edge of my driveway which turns into an ice rink anytime it snows. Torin, thinking this may be some sort of joke or attempt to leave him out, defiantly stomps his feet onto this patch, falls, lands on his face, and knocks out at least one permanent front tooth.

It’s now 5:00pm on Thanksgiving so, as expected, every dentist office and doctor’s office in the area is closed. At this point, my aunt is frantically calling the children’s hospital, my mom is on the phone with other doctors trying to get some advice on how to handle the situation, and my cousin is icing the new hole in his mouth where his permanent tooth used to be.

After thirty minutes passed and still no progress had been made, my mom remembered a key piece of information from her first aid class, which is that if you lose a tooth and can put it in milk within two hours of it falling out, you may be able to keep the roots alive. If this is the case, once you find the tooth you can hold it back in place hoping the roots will reattach, thus avoiding the need for a fake tooth.

Frantically, my mom, brothers, and I run back out onto the driveway searching through the white snow for his small white tooth, which is basically like searching for a needle in a haystack. My brothers then decide to drag out the extension cords and plug in hairdryers to melt the snow, but little improvement is made. As a last stitch effort, I run inside to grab a gallon jug of water to pour onto the snow. This method melts the snow significantly faster, and we miraculously find the tooth.

 

So what did I learn from all this?

One, if you lose a permanent tooth put it in milk as fast as possible. Two, my excellent idea of using water to melt snow is much more effective than hairdryers melting snow. Three, some things happen that are just out of your control.

Naturally, my uncle felt like this whole accident was his fault since he was the only supervisor out on the driveway at the time of the incident. However, freak accidents happen, and this was just one of those times. The important thing for my uncle to do now is provide support and be there for Torin in the many years of dental appointments ahead. Life will go on, you can’t plan for everything, or as more famously quoted: “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”