SC boy uses bow and arrow to pull first tooth

Think of it as William Tell meets the Tooth Fairy.

Seven-year-old Cayden Sullard of Bluffton recently made the introduction and became a budding viral video sensation in the process.

His 30-second video, shot with a cell phone by Cayden's father Scott in the family's backyard late last year, opens with a close-up of the boy's face.

A length of string is tied to a loose front tooth.

Cayden raises his arms toward the camera, revealing a bow clutched in his small-boy's hands.

An arrow is nocked on the bowstring.

Attached to the arrow is the other end of the string, tied to Cayden's loose tooth.

Cayden draws the bow.

He aims.

He fires.

The arrow takes flight.

So does Cayden's tooth.

The video ends just after Cayden -- grinning widely to show his newly gapped smile.

The clip has been viewed on YouTube nearly 18,000 times as of Friday, and Cayden's dad estimates at least another 30,000 views have poured in from other video sharing and social media sites. The vast majority of those views, he said, have come in the past week.

As the video started picking up steam, Cayden "was so excited you could just see it on his face," his mom, Kelly Hallock, said earlier this week.

"Every five minutes he's asking, 'How many more views does it have, dad?,' Sullard said.

Cayden, a first grader at River Ridge Academy, is already brainstorming ideas for an encore video when his next tooth starts feeling a little wobbly.

"I want to go in the backyard and tie dental floss to (the family dog's) leash and then my tooth," he said. "And my dad can hold onto her leash and then let her go."

Another possibility involves "tying (a loose tooth) to a model rocket," Cayden said.

"We'll give it a whirl," Sullard said with a chuckle, though he does have a few safety concerns about the blast-off method..

Hallock said Cayden is always "thinking of all of these creative ways he can lose teeth now."

And while she calls herself "a fearful mother," she's become accustomed to her son's adventurous streak.

"He's basically a daredevil. He loves skateboarding and sports and playing outdoors," she said.

"As long as he's being safe and (a parent) is watching him, usually I'm ok."

But she does draw the line somewhere: Cayden will not be pulling teeth with the assistance of a moving vehicle.

"No cars -- absolutely not," she said. "That will never happen."

Cayden does have one regret about removing his tooth Robin Hood style.

When the arrow went flying, the tooth came untied from the string and he was never able to find it.

Not to worry.

The Tooth Fairy must have seen the video and decided the visual evidence was strong enough.

Cayden found $10 under his pillow the next morning.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 2:09 PM with the headline "SC boy uses bow and arrow to pull first tooth."