A day with teeth

My children clearly have inherited some things from their parents.  Duck has my coloring, but looks just like B.  Stealth has B's coloring, but his face is just like mine.  Duck is into music like me, Stealth is a rabid angler, just like B.  Duck's moodiness = B, his temper = me.  Stealth's sense of humor = B, his creativity = well, both of us.

 

But they have also inherited some not so appealing things, too.  Namely horrible teeth.

 

Mine have always been straight, I've never needed braces.  B needed braces forever, but now has perfectly straight teeth.  The boys, thus far, seem to have straight teeth like me, but they also have gotten the rotten teeth from my side of the family.  Yep, they get brushed and flossed and rinsed at least twice a day, but still, they are rotten.  Duck has had 4 root canals and a filling and Stealth has had a filling - that fell out.  AGH.

 

So today we went to a new dentist (don't even get me started on the catastrophe that was the last dentist,) and let me just say, I *LOVE* this new dentist.  He's in town (instead of driving 30 miles,) the office is clean and decorated with art, the folks are nice, the office manager (and hygienist, etc.) is a dream - I'm serious, this guy is so awesome I wanted to steal him.  The dentist himself is lovely, the receptionist is awesome, and get this - THEY HAVE NITROUS!!  Oh thank you, Elvis, for nitrous.  The last dentist didn't have laughing gas and just jabbed the Novocaine needle into my children's mouths without warning and then told them "if you don't settle down, we'll have to go to the hospital right now and you'll have surgery!!!"  (Didn't I tell you it was a fan-fucking-tastic disaster there?)

 

Why am I so thrilled about this laughing gas?  Because we found out today that Duck needs at least as much work done again as he has had done before (yikes, 4 more root canals at least???) and Stealth needs to have the tooth pulled that lost the filling and has a few more cavities that need to be filled.  Those poor kids!

 

At least the dentist sat me down and said, "You are doing *everything right.*  The teeth in both of the boys are so very clean.  I can tell you brush all the time.  It's just genetic.  And, after all, they are just baby teeth.  Duck's molars look awesome!  Don't worry about it, continue to do what you're doing, and we'll just take care of these guys."  Whew.  As if I don't have enough Mama guilt as it is.

 

It's not all going to be done in one visit - we'll split it up into several visits per kid, no more than one hour in the chair at a time.  They are open to doing it on days that work best for us (hooray!!) and really are just so very wonderful.  The boys love these folks -- and so do I.

 

I gotta floss ....