What's One Crocodile's Tooth More or Less

As I sat in the waiting room of the dentist office this morning, my two boys were watching “Dunston Checks In” and my youngest daughter was in the chair. She had come back in for a tiny filling. I had watched only a moment earlier as they put the “silly gas” mask over her nose and mouth. Not wanting to watch or HEAR the dentist work, I returned to the waiting room only a few feet away. I tried to pay attention to the TV but frankly, the movie was lame and not holding my attention (maybe in a different setting it would be cute). I got out a piece of paper and began to make my “list” for our upcoming trip, when I heard Naissa cry out, a scared sounding cry, a sad cry. My body tensed and began to fight the urge to run in and save my daughter from the pain and fear….sitting frozen, just listening for the cue to go to her…but knowing she needed to have the filling done. After a moment, maybe two….the assistant came to the door and called me back. They weren’t sure if they should continue. Naissa still wore the “silly gas” mask, but she wasn’t handling all the equipment they were trying to put in her tiny mouth. They were concerned that even if they got through this filling, she would need to come back for the other 3 fillings! FOUR CAVITIES!!! She’s only 5 for goodness sake!! We talked about the options and decided that it would be easiest and probably best to have her sleep while all 4 were done. So now I will have to make an appointment with the oral surgeon. While we were there they did X-rays on Zack’s mouth because his filling had fallen out two nights ago while eating a snickers. Turns out he needs to have FOUR teeth removed…..another oral surgery appointment. His baby teeth (molars) have decided not to come out on their own and the permanent teeth are trying to push them out but becoming infected in the effort. One of them is trying to come out way above where it should be. Oral surgery. I did that with Leesha twice. It’s not easy to let strangers take your child back into a room, knock them out and yank out their teeth!