A month or more ago, I had been brushing G's teeth when I noticed what I thought to be a hole in the top of one her back molars, kind of near the edge. Not knowing what it was I dismissed it until it could further develop into something... It was only a couple weeks ago that I was looking in there again – Drew usually does the nightly brushing – and I found the hole was bigger and pie-shaped. We rarely let the girls have hard candy, and though I know G grinds her teeth a bit in her sleep, I didn't think it was enough to cause this kind of damage.
Originally, we had a dentist appt scheduled for next Monday, but we were lucky to get in on a cancellation yesterday afternoon. The bad news is G's got a lot of stinking "sugar bugs" and the broken one is eaten away in the side-middle so that the top "crumbled" during regular chewing. What gets us right here [in the pocketbook] is that we'd taken her to a regular (for-adults) dentist last year, spent a hair more than we did yesterday to watch a monkey brush his teeth, be lightly prodded with a couple of those scary-looking instruments, and given a pair of star-shaped sunglasses (to keep the exam light out of her eyes) – and we didn't even get full X-rays out of the deal, which I'm convinced would have helped us to prevent at least half the sugar bugs she currently has. We're looking at at least three caps, which you might be wondering, why go to all that trouble for teeth that are just going to fall out eventually. For one thing, these are her first and second year molars that typically don't fall out until 9-11 years old, so there's a lot of potential for infection, pain and more cavities in that time. Secondly, this office advocates keeping baby teeth for as long as possible, since they are space keepers for the permanent teeth behind them. Worse case scenario is that G doesn't cooperate with their treatment and we have to send those teeth to the tooth fairy. (Specialized pediatric dentists apparently like to use "positive terminology" for the more unpleasant elements of dentistry, such as needle or shot = sleepy water; drill = whistle or water toothbrush; decay or cavity = sugar bugs. I can't say which is better since this is my first experience with one, but I'm willing to play along.)
In any event, G went into the examination room by herself without any ceremony, and reportedly was a very good patient, since among other things, they had a TV on the ceiling and she got to pick out a Cinderella toothbrush for herself. It's a pleasant office, as far as the waiting room is concerned, so though I'm not exactly looking forward to it, I don't cringe either at the idea of having to spend a lot more time at the dentist's office (just like in my own youth).
