I began this post yesterday by telling you about the majority of our visit to the pediatric dentist. Needless to say I was already a little tired and having my moon made me emotional as well.
After the girls were done we were ushered into one of the consultation rooms and left to wait for the hygienist. She came in and sat down across from us. “Let’s see,” she begins, “looking at R’s chart she has one, two, three…(silence while counting, because you can’t talk at the same time counting that high)…eight, nine cavities.” I couldn’t hold my tongue. “NINE!?!” Immediately Reagan buried her head in my arm. I wished I could have cut my tongue out of my mouth. I know how bad I feel when I have teeth issues, and I just reinforced those issues into my daughter. How horrible of a mother could I be? I held her tightly, as tightly as I could with Ashlyn squirming and whining on my left knee.
The hygienist then began to talk about treatment options. I was glazing over though thinking about how I just made my daughter cry. Just made her feel bad in front of me. Not for doing something wrong, but just for having teeth problems. The hygienist finally quit when the dentist came in to go over the xrays. She took her place across from us. “Hmm, I see a lot of crowding in there. There are a lot of teeth vying for their places.” “Yes, I had a lot of crowding too. Had to get a lot of teeth pulled because of that.” My mind begins to wonder if she’ll have to go through the trauma I went through. “Here,” the dentist begins, “are where the front four bottom teeth should be. I don’t really see any teeth down there though.” Wha? All I could manage to whisper was, “there might not be adult teeth down there?” She had the hygienist take Reagan back to the chair to get another xray of the front of her mouth. As soon as Reagan was out of the room I broke down. I couldn’t stand the thought of her having to go through teeth pulling after teeth pulling just to make room in her mouth, and then to have to be fitted for implants for four front teeth.
The dentist felt so bad for me she came around and gave me a hug. Then she got me tissues. I love the compassion of women. I couldn’t even express why I was upset. I knew I had to regain composure before Reagan came back in. And when she did I was composed, and the good news was that there are four adult teeth down there. She will have to see the orthodontist soon because one adult tooth isn’t where it should be and is covering up a six-year molar that should be pushing through the gum soon.
The Not So SAHM women are strong when we need to be (like during the moving process we just went through). But there are times (thank you moon) when we sob and bawl like the best of babies. Lord help Du.
Not So SAHM 
I understand completely what you’re going through with the cavity thing. We went through that in January and I bawled in the office. Not only did Alex have numerous cavities that needed to be filled, he had two teeth that needed pulp-something-tomies (similar to a root canal) and then caps put on them. I felt like the worst mother ever. On top of that, they told me that one of his top teeth was essentially a dead tooth. What confused the dentist was that it hadn’t turned color like most do (still hasn’t actually… thankfully it’s loose so it’ll fall out on it’s own soon). It’s hard when something happens to our kids and we have no control over it. I beat myself up hard about it for a while and then realized that it was really out of my control. Genetics plays a large role in our teeth. Whew… I rambled on huh? Don’t beat yourself up about it…. it’s not your fault. And in the grand scheme of things, she’ll be fine. It may take a few trips to the dentist/orthodontist, but in the end, it’ll all work out. 🙂
How aweful!-especially since we all on some level blame our mothers for our teeth and how they turned out-everybody blames the mom-and now it’s you-AAACK! Go ahead and pass the buck and tell her her teeth came from Gramma (kidding. kinda.) We have been through this trauma at my house (only with a dentist who schooled at Sadism U)and have more to come so I’m pulling for ya! It’s pretty easy to understand your little Taz now too-she’s the family barometer telegraphing everything Mommy is trying to keep under wraps. My prescription for you? a lg Coke with crushed ice and a fudge brownie. Floss Schmoss!
Moooooooommmm … she’s only SIX. Please give yourself a break. Things change a lot with kids, especially at that age. Their teeth seem to fall out every other second!
The dentist gave my mom holy hell when I was 8 and she refused to slap braces on me to deal with the huge gap between my front teeth. By age 10, it had resolved itself without any interference.
Here’s hoping that R gets just as good of results with about the same amount of intervention. 🙂
HUGS! HUGS! HUGS!!
When I was 10 years old and the dentist found a cavity, I remember sobbing my eyes out. I was SO disappointed in myself. So I can only imagine how Reagan must have felt.
If I were in your position, I know for SURE I would have broken down too, but I’m not sure I would have had the mind not to do it in front of my kids. So, be kind to yourself.
I had horrible crowding, too. My mouth may have been healthy, but it certainly wasn’t pretty to look at. And now Hannah looks to have inherited my small jaw and big teeth. Her mouth is SO crowded, and they won’t even consider doing anything for another two years. They want her to grow a little more.
Perhaps Reagan will do a bit of growing, too.
I really need to hug y’all right now. Both of you. And Ashlyn, too…if she’d stand still long enough.
Keep me posted.
((HUGS)) to both of you! It seens never ending when it comes to the dentist. I mentioned it before but I have been seeing dentist for one thing or another since I was about Reagan’s age! You both will make it through just fine. Tears or not.
Oh, sweetie. My heart is breaking right now and I’m crying my eyes out. How well I remember what you went through with the teeth pulling. You were so brave through several extractions and didn’t complain at all. Then when you were heading back for I think the next to the last procedure, you busted out crying and said you just couldn’t stand it one more time. Talking to you about it, I found out you weren’t worried about pain; you said you just couldn’t stand to “hear” it anymore. I had never thought of that and you had never mentioned “hearing” the tooth coming out or that it bothered you. Thank goodness, our dentist listened when I had you tell him the problem and he gave you a little gas. You were pretty giddy, went through it fine and were happy that you couldn’t “hear” it. He said no one had expressed that to him before but it was logical and he could see how it could cause anxiety in adults and fear in children. I’m thankful that when the initial conference took place about the crowding and the need for pulling took place, you were not present because I too broke down and there was no moon involved. Talk about crybaby mommy, I even cried (again no moon involved) and wondered what I could have done better when I was told your brother needed glasses. I don’t care how strong we are; when it comes to our children it’s another realm. OOXX
Thanks everyone for your kind comments! You’re all helping me to put it into perspective. And Mom, I had forgotten that it was the cracking I despised. I hope Reagan doesn’t have to go through that much…
Her ortho appointment is next week. We’ll see what she has to say…
My kids all had lots of fillings in their baby teeth , but have been really good with their adult ones.The girls already had braces and my son will be getting them,when I was little my parents didn’t want to waste money on getting me braces so ..lucky me I got to have a bunch of teeth pulled one day to make room for my new ones .
(((HUGS)))