Baby Tooth Exploding!

[pumasalient]

So, this morning DS age 8 lost his 4th tooth (large front upper). We left it on a piece of kitchen towel ready for him to put under his pillow tonight. This evening I came back and there was only half a tooth there....it's cleanly split down the middle! It took 20 minutes of searching (along with complicated questions about whether the tooth fairy would accept half a tooth and whether this meant they would only leave half the normal amount!) before I found it halfway across the room. It must have exploded somehow. I've never heard of this happening before and it hasn't happened to any of the other baby teeth he has lost. I wondered if anyone else had experienced the same thing? I googled it but couldn't find anything. I can only think it has happened as it dried out.

All three of my kids have had teeth explode after they fell out. When we would find a tooth in two places and not where we left it it my husband blamed the cat. Then yesterday I saw a tooth that had only fallen out a couple of hours prior explode and shoot off in two pieces right in front of me.
I asked my dentist about this years ago and he'd never heard of it. My kids have a pretty good diet and there isn't any type of food we restrict so I don't think this is a nutrition problem.

Did you ever get an answer on this?? Both of my 10 year old son’s bicuspids have exploded within a day or two after falling out. I had them on my dresser and I would find one half on the dresser and the other would be 10 feet away on the floor. What the heck??

I asked the dentist again just a few months ago. He's never heard of it. Because the teeth dry out once they are no longer attached, cracking/splitting is normal. But the exploding part - I'm the first parent to tell him about it.