Dentist Day

It was time for the kids annual cleaning and dental evaluation.  This time we had to wear masks, get our temperatures taken, and the play area was closed all due to Covid 19.  They still had Tom and Jerry playing on the TV screen though so Beatrix and Calista were the only ones who cared about the play place.

Tucker is not in the picture because he ran back to the car to get Leon's expander for him.  It was actually really nice.  The car was about a half mile away.  We have to park on base and then walk out in town down a main street to the dentist.  Our dentist doesn't have parking.  I was grateful to have an older child who is willing and responsible to help in that way.  He didn't even complain once.

This was Calista's first time at the dentist (aside from the waiting room).  We talked it up for days beforehand.  We kept telling her it was going to be so fun and they were going to look in her mouth and brush her teeth. 

It made a huge difference.  She was scared but she totally did it.  She kept saying her real feelings and then the things she thought she should be feeling because we told them to her over and over again.  So she sounded something like this.  "I don't want to get in the char." Then I make her get into the chair.  "This is so fun."  "No I not open mouth."  Then she opens mouth.  "This is so fun."  "Just one more."  "This is so fun."

It was cute.  She was scared and they should have warned her before lowering her chair back so that scared her even more.  But she knew that we think it is fun and that we think it should be fun for her.  She was trying so hard to think it was fun.

In the end all the kids did great.  Tucker had his first cavity so that was pretty sad.  I was kind of upset and scared him a little bit by telling him about how horrible it is that he has a cavity.  He has since been brushing after each meal.  We will see how long he keeps it up. 

Milk Teeth

It feels like we've been making a lot of trips to the dentist lately.  Scarlett got her first ever cavity, the first of any of the kids, a few months ago and we went for three appointments to get it filled.  Why do they work on the cavity little each time, instead of all in one appointment?  I have no idea, I think it is more common her in Japan.  She was just getting one cavity filled on a milk tooth.  

It took me a little bit to figure out what a milk tooth even was, I've only heard them called baby teeth before.  Our insurance doesn't cover any cavities, so I wasn't thrilled with paying for a cavity on a wiggly tooth.  Then they were talking about how it was a big cavity so we need a crown and I had to decline that.  We have extra FSA money to spend this year, but I still didn't want to waste it on a crown that could fall out any day.

Instead we decided to buy a spacer for Leon.  We normally wouldn't have done it, I kind of just want to wait and see how the kids teeth turn out before we do any ortho work but we literally had over a thousand dollars to spend and only a few days left in the year.  We debated buying really nice first aid kits but hopefully in the end the spacer will be worth it.  The dentist kept saying that Leon has really big teeth.

 Here he is getting an x-ray so they could make a mold of his mouth.

Calista and Beatrix love the little play place at the dentist.  We literally fill up the whole waiting room.  When I was finishing up the receptionist spent a while translating something in English to tell me and then when she showed me her computer it said something like, "Next time just talking so only mom need come."  Haha, the kids were pretty well behaved so I don't think that was meant to discourage me from bringing the kids but it did make me think.   I ended up bringing everyone again because we were meeting Bob for lunch afterwards.  It worked out though, the one other person in the waiting room told me she gives me her respect for having six kids.