Cavities

Two days ago Troy took The Rock Star to his dentist appointment. Honestly, I didn't give it a second thought. My oldest child has always received marks of excellence from the dentist. He loves to have his teeth brushed, flossed, poked, prodded. And he always has.

It was to be his last appointment with the pediatric dentist. We'd found out that our insurance didn't cover any work done at a specialty dentist and we'd decided that after his scheduled cleaning he would start seeing our dentist. We love him and we've already taken Matthew to see him and it went well. So we'd decided to bid farewell to the pediatric dentist before any work needed to be done.

Turns out, The Rock Star had four cavities and a top tooth that may need to be pulled on account of the fact that it might be dying.

I started crying when Troy told me on the phone.

How could I let this happen? We've always brushed twice a day, every day, without fail. How could I let four of my precious little boy's teeth become cavity infested? I'm a horrid, horrible, very bad mother. These were the thoughts that ran through my head.

I'm a little obsessed with oral hygiene. And just a little obsessed with people around me not getting cavities. I've never had one. So the fact that I allowed my four-year-old child to have four was simply unacceptable.

My husband and my mother said the same things. This isn't your fault. You didn't allow it. The cavities are at floss points. Maybe his enamel isn't as good as yours. My mom said that maybe we should get a second opinion.

We took him to our dentist today. He would be the one doing the work anyway on account of the insurance. He wanted to see him and take his own x-rays. The top teeth (both of them) are a major concern. It seems that he hit them--probably several weeks ago when he fell, whacked his face, and got a bloody nose--and there is a good chance that they will need to come out. My baby might be able to sing "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" for several Christmases in a row. He's thrilled about this possibility and can't wait until the tooth fairy comes.

But as for the one, two, three, four cavities--this dentist spent about ten minutes thoroughly examining the inside of Garrett's mouth and said he doesn't see anything. Well, that's not entirely true, he did see some decalcification in a couple of spots which can, eventually, lead to cavities. But he repeated that he was certain that he didn't see any actual cavities.

It's really too bad that Garrett went around telling everyone and their grandmother that he has bunches of cavities. And it's teeth week at school so there is no telling what he's been saying there.

Our dentist calls himself conservative and the pediatric dentist calls himself preventative. When it comes to the mouth of a four-year-old with a mother who has major dental neuroses, we'll go with conservative every time.

I did learn, however, that when if my pearly white toothed babies get mouthfuls of cavities, life will go on. It isn't the end of the world. We'll have the dentist patch them up and send them on their way.

But I sure am glad we got that second opinion.