Dad Pulls Son's Wobbly Tooth With Remote-Controlled Helicopter

Mar. 26, 2014— -- When apples and door knobs are no match for the modern kid’s wobbly tooth, why not use modern technology to solve an age-old problem? One dad in Dublin did just that, coming to the rescue with dental floss and a remote-controlled helicopter to pull his son’s baby tooth.

Adam Swan can now lay claim to what may be one of most famous tooth pulls in history, thanks to a YouTube video that has since gone viral.

The 8-year-old’s dad, Malcolm Swan, told Irish Radio Station RTÉ 2FM on Tuesday that his son initially was adverse to the idea, telling his dad, “No way, no way, you’re mad!”

“He had a very loose tooth the day before Paddy’s Day,” said the father, Malcolm Swan. "About three or four weeks ago, I got my hands on a quadcopter with remote controls, and I just said to him, 'Oh, come on. Let me pull it out with that.'"

His son’s protestations didn’t put Malcolm Swan off his idea. Instead, he sent his son to bed with a warning in jest that, “If it’s not out by the morning, it’s getting pulled.”

The boy went to bed and “jiggled it like mad for about an hour,” before falling asleep, Malcolm Swan said.

By the next morning, the boy had changed his tune and the pair set off to an empty field near their home.

Malcolm Swan said he managed to tie a one end of about 30 feet of floss to the end of his son’s loose tooth, and the other to the quadcopter and “away we went.”

“You can see in the video, when the floss comes tight, there’s not even a jerk of his head or anything,” Swan said. “It was that loose. I literally could have just plucked it out with my two fingers.”

Adam Swan was “excited,” and “delighted,” his dad said, even though he won’t be getting a visit from the tooth fairy as the pair never managed to recover the tooth.