Pulling out a tooth with a string and a doorknob: Is it safe?
Lights, Camera, Extraction! Great Footage of Tooth Removal by String and Door Slam.
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Jan. 13 2014 7:30 AM

Lights, Camera, Extraction!

Kids are pulling out their teeth with a string and a slammed door—and filming it for YouTube.

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2. Balls and Other Sports-Related Things. If you can throw it, bounce it, kick it, or whack it, chances are someone has tied it to a tooth. We'll begin with the national pastime, baseball. (The boy in full uniform is a nice touch.):

You can also use a football:

Or a basketball:


Or a soccer ball:

Or a tennis ball:

Or a golf ball:

Hockey doesn't use a ball, but no worries—a puck works just as well:

3. Things That Fly. Humans have always been fascinated by flight—all the more so, it appears, when the flying object in question is connected to a tooth. First up is a paper airplane:

Next we have a toy plane:

A Nerf dart works well:

As does a bow and arrow:

And surely you knew this was coming—a model rocket:

4. Living Things. From sled dogs to plow mules, animals have long been deployed to provide the power for certain tasks—a list of tasks to which we can now add tooth extraction. Let's begin with man's best friend, the family dog:

Cats are notoriously persnickety when it comes to doing as they're told, but here's one that managed to perform more or less on cue:

A rabbit? Sure, why not:

But why press a pet into service when a sibling can do the job just as well:

* * *

There's more, but you get the gist. Whatever else you can say about all these methods, they've no doubt made life a lot more interesting for the Tooth Fairy.

The funny thing, though, is that all of these methods are unnecessary. "There's no need to do any of this, because the baby tooth will fall out on its own," said Dr Rubinstein, my dentist. "But often it's something that makes the parents feel better."


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