So Busted

The kids had dental checkups today (except for Owen, who had his a few months back) and somehow I ended up the one busted. I thought for sure Liam would be busted for not brushing very well. I thought Natalie would be OK, because I still brush after her most of the time.

Instead, Natalie was called out for having the beginnings of a couple cavities. Nothing to fill yet, but I'm sure it's coming. And when I admitted to the Dr that she has a weakness for fruit chew snacks (trying to think of an excuse, because surely it is not my brushing...) the Dr looked at me like I was feeding my child rat poison. She said "those things are full of..." something or other that sounded like carcinogens, but I know it wasn't carcinogens, but is apparently something else that is as bad for teeth as carcinogens are for a body. She even went on to say she "wishes they would put warning labels on those things." OK. Hate to tell her, but the box could say that it would cause immediate and excruciating pain and that would probably not stop Nat from begging for them. So we've been been "told" to only have them after dinner, right before brushing at night. Alrighty then.

Then Liam went in. The last time we went to the dentist she said that I should be doing a final brush for him "until he can write in cursive." I have no idea what that means, or how old that is. When I mumbled something about having 3 kids to brush...she relented and said to at least do it at night, if I can't manage the morning. So of course I have just been letting him brush by himself. I have three other sets of teeth (including my own) to clean every morning and night, for Pete's sake, and I probably should be doing Jim's as well!! It would be more efficient to just teach him to write in cursive. So anyway...after his cleaning they called me back to see his x-rays. I expected the worst, but his looked better than Natalie's. They also showed me all his big-boy teeth just under the surface. The boy hasn't lost a tooth yet (one of the few First Graders who has not), but from what they say, any day now he is just going to up and lose half the teeth in his mouth at the same time. Lovely. I'm in no hurry - losing teeth has always made me queasy, and I'd be perfectly happy for him to be 18 and still have those little chiclet teeth.

But the odd thing...is that he has an extra tooth because a permanent tooth has come IN on the bottom already, even though the baby tooth did not fall out. As the Dr talked about this, I made the mistake of asking with surprise, "You mean you can actually SEE a second tooth in there?" and she pointed to this great big tooth hanging out right behind his little tiny tooth, raised her eyebrow, and said, "You mean you haven't SEEN this?" Uh-oh. How long has it actually BEEN since I've looked in his mouth, much less helped him brush? (I know she is thinking this). So busted.

So if he hasn't lost the baby tooth in 2 weeks (and that doesn't seem likely since it's not loose at all) they want to pull it. Strangely enough, Liam isn't too upset by the news. I think he is just excited to finally be close to losing teeth. Everyone else is doing it, after all.

And Natalie is definitely crushed about the news of restricted fruit chews.

And I'm sure the Dr wrote many things about me in red ink on their charts.