A princess, her teeth and her stickerI'd just spent a week discussing sweet intake with friends, and bought about 4-5 kilos of my favourite German sweets (to be eaten over half a year of course), only to take an incidental look at Tara's set of very young beautiful teeth two days later, and spot a cavity that was a cavity-beyond-any-doubt. Ah, those sweets, that fruit juice all day long, that lack of cooperation with teeth brushing until just after she turned three, and quite clearly also a bad genetic starting point (with ME ME ME to thank for it).
So, with a heavy heart, I arranged for dentist (got one straight away, which is lucky), and a visit within the week. I resolved not to let anyone drill - JUST advice at the first visit! - then picked my girl up from nursery, and took her to the dentist where she bravely sat on the big magic chair all by herself, opened her mouth and had her teeth counted. 20 teeth, one cavity. And two minutes later I'd signed permission for the dentist to drill. Great one for consistency and resolve, mum. Tara was promised a sticker and let the dentist "brush her teeth with a special brush", but when it came to water and air she ended her cooperation promptly. So now she has a hole without filling that's bigger than the cavity was, has food getting stuck in it whenever she eats, and remembers that she does not want to lie down on the magic chair and doesn't like air and water either. Great.
She was very pleased with her big sticker though, paraded it through nursery and her home, played dentist for the rest of the day and declared that her tooth was much better now.
Still, we need to go back and have the job finished asap, and I'm feeling awful for letting anyone drill against my plans, and knowing that Tara lacked the maturity to go through with it all (actually, she did shockingly well). Bad mother - I'm feeling utterly gutted.
There is some ocnsolation in being told that the cavity would be at least 6-12 months old, which means it predates our sweet habit, potty training bribery and excessive consumption of fruit juice.
I bet everyone else is thinking, what's all this fuss about something so relatively minor. But still.... *sniffle* I had such high hopes and aspirations for her teeth. I have such bad ones and the dentist was the horror of my childhood and now is one of the horrors of my savings. What can I say... Tara, darling, you did great. There'll be a fat lovely present when we have the job finished. And much much fewer sweets from now on, and forget about undiluted fruit juice!
7 comments:
ooohhh, poor brave Tara!
Oh, you poor people living in the UK! Here we have pediatric dentists here with really cool chairs and all kinds of cool stuff. And for most cavities they use this really cool laser thingies and no drilling. Of course, I haven't actually taken Liam to the dentist yet (when he turns 3). This I hear from all my friends with kids older than mine. But we are much more advanced here when it come to dental work. For very scared kids they do sedation dentistry so hopefully you have that option there as well. Good luck! Sorry it didn't go so well. Please don't feel bad. You did what you had to do.
What?! Pediatric dentists? Laser treatment? Kiddie gadgets? Yael, are you aware that you are reducing one bad English mother to tears here, adn driving her to check her funds and finances and the next flight over to the US?!
You don't have to fly all the way to the US, Alex. They have pediatric dentists in Germany, too. There's one close to our house. I've seen it in between lots of kiddie boutiques and toy stores here in our neighborhood. So that would save some of the money for the flight for actually getting the job done.
So they MIGHT have one in Hannover, too! Maybe even in Ramsgate (doubtful?)
Still. I feel for you.
I'm officially doubly gutted and looking for tissues to wipe away those hormonal tears of self-pity, daughter-pity and pity for the whole English nation and their teeth.
well, they don't have their reputation for nothing ... ;-)
America - one. Germany - two. It's simple maths... England is a third world country! Poop to that!
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