Can you remember being at school as a young child and having a wobbly tooth? It was difficult not to play with that thing, either with your tongue or with your fingers. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle – all day long until that sucker fell out and you could put it under your pillow for the tooth fairy. They were exciting times, weren’t they? Mind you, back in my day that tiny little tooth fairy only carried coins around with them!

Most parents take the business of their kids losing teeth in their stride. It’s a natural occurrence, and at some stage children will lose all of their baby teeth to make way for their ‘big teeth.’ However, one dad was extremely unhappy that the his seven year old son was sent to the school nurse because he was wiggling his tooth a lot during class, and she promptly pulled it out for him and sent it home with him in a baggy.

On Monday 7yo son came home missing his front tooth. It was a bit wiggly but not ready to be pulled. I asked what happened and he showed me his baby tooth in a baggy and said the nurse pulled it out.

WTF?

I emailed his teacher and he said my son was wiggling it a lot and asked him if his tooth was about to fall out. My son said he didn’t know and sent him to the nurse. He said he was expecting her to look and to call me if it was ready to come off.

Instead, she pulled it out and my son was not comfortable with it. He said it hurt. I spoke with her today and said she had ZERO business doing that. She said his tooth was pretty loose and she was worried he might swallow it. I said then why didn’t you call me? You are NOT a dentist and you caused him pain.

She said she’s been a school nurse for years. I said then you should had known better and you’re a disgrace and unprofessional.

I did go to the vice principal who confirmed that is NOT within a school nurse’s scope to pull teeth and she should had notified me instead. She was pissed off that the school nurse didn’t even send a note that he saw her with is standard. She did tell me I could had toned down the daddy bear a bit.

Reactions were mixed in the comments section, with many people thinking that the father was right to be angry and that the nurse had overstepped.

They come out when they’re ready. Pulling them early can cause infections, broken roots, etc. That need actual dental care to treat.

When I was little my parents wouldn’t let me yank out any loose teeth, just told me to keep wiggling it until it came out on its own.

Issues from pulling baby teeth aren’t super common, but they do happen, so I understand OPs anger here, especially since the kid didn’t want the tooth pulled. (civilwar142pa)

If the tooth was that close, the nurse should have called the parent and let them know. And I can’t imagine swallowing a baby tooth is exactly a choke and die situation. NTA (Leopard-Recent)

Other people considered the dad’s reaction to be out of proportion to the events.

Baby teeth aren’t a big deal. They can be pulled by someone who isn’t a dentist. I am amazed by the overreactions in this thread. The nurse did nothing wrong. (TyroneHeismanziel)

While some people agreed in principle that it wasn’t the nurses place to pull the tooth, they also didn’t understand why the dad was so upset about it.

I can appreciate that you’re not authorized to do this without parental permission. But I’m also probably going to look at you funny while I ask why you didn’t just pull it lmao. I didn’t realize pulling teeth was this big of a deal to people. I’m an early 90’s kid and I distinctly remember my 1st grade teacher pulling my front tooth and then I just, like, went back to my spelling test. It was 1990 though, such a simpler time lol. (ValuableSeesaw1603)

Indeed, many commenters shared stories about how this kind of thing was a common occurrence when they were at school, and certain teachers were well-known for their teeth pulling prowess and nobody gave it a second thought.

It is wild how much parenting and schooling has changed since I was in elementary school (I just did the math, and fuck I’m old). My first grade teacher pulled my tooth, wrapped it up in pink tissue, and gave me a little plastic box to take it home in. I was so excited about the box and happy that the tooth was out. I still have the plastic box and the tooth today. My parents even made me write her a thank you note. Lololol (Rae_Regenbogen)

One of the kindergarten teachers was known to be really good at pulling teeth. Other teachers from all over the elementary school would send kids to his class to have their teeth pulled. It was down right exciting when your teacher was like “hmmm….I think you might need to go see Mr. Phillips.”

To my 30-year-old ears, this seems like such a non-issue, OP. (hochizo)

One commenter belived that the father would have done more harm than good by ‘coddling’ the child.

YTA, I agree with one of the comments saying school staff will probably hate you now and the kid will have a reputation of being the child of an over-bearing helicopter parent. It’s a freaking baby tooth, calm your tits. You may think it was a “special occasion” because it was the first tooth to go and should have been done by a professional but trust me, once he starts losing the rest it’ll be no big deal.

Stop coddling your kid. The worst thing you can do to a child is to raise him thinking everything and everyone is out to get him, he’ll be a victim his whole life and cry foul and run to his momma for every little thing. (Imakeameanlasagna)

Weighing in on the comments section was also a dentist with the voice of reason who had this to say:

I’m gonna go with NTA. I’m a dentist and I wouldn’t pull out a kids’ tooth in my office without getting explicit consent from the parent first. Having said that, it is a baby tooth that by all accounts was well on its way out anyway. I cannot tell you how many times a parent or child has come in concerned because “this tooth isn’t even loose yet” when it is, in fact, quite loose. Point being that it may have been more far gone than you or your son realized. I don’t want to minimize any trauma this causes you or your son, but it is unlikely that he suffered severe pain in the pulling, and rest assured he will be ok. Could you have toned down your response a notch? Yes. Was it appropriate to bring this up with the school admin and escalate? Also yes. (sh-tcoyote)

What do you think? How would you feel if your child came home and said the school nurse pulled their tooth out?