Fun day at the dentist

How do you spell fun? Ask Matthew, and he'll say it's D-E-N-T-I-S-T (if he could spell, that is). They have prizes. Plus, they tickle you.

While not everyone would agree with him, we did have a family fun extravaganza at our dentist yesterday. Well, except for Todd, who has to go to military dentists. Mom had a few fillings replaced (fun!), and the kids all had cleanings. First up, Matthew. He giggled through a lot of it, tried to press every button he could everywhere, and was thoroughly impressed with the garbage can that you stepped on and it sprang open. He has no cavities and no other dental work required. Sadly, that was the only one we could say that about.

Allison sucks her thumb. Because of this, and if we don't do anything to reverse what it does to her mouth, she is starting to look like a beaver. She needs to get some kind of contraption put in her mouth that either cuts off her thumb, gives her a shock-collar jolt of electricity very time she tries to suck her thumb, or something that just makes it impossible to do it at all. I can see dollar signs floating in the air already...OH, and she had 2 little cavities . Those are the first for any of them ever.

So, on to Amanda. Amanda, it turns out, is missing a wisdom tooth. Yeah! We save money (eventually). Ohh, but she's also missing a molar (she has the premolar, but nothing under it). Hmmmm....that's not great, but okay we can deal with it. OHHH, and another her permanent molars may be pushing the permanent one next to it out. That is not good. But, she has no cavities. That is good news. She will be having an Oral surgeon consult if the molar doesn't self-adjust. Ohh, and she will have to be careful of the baby molar forever.....Cha-ching.....

And then there's Julia. Julia has no cavities and everything else is good. Ohh, wait, she has impacted canines. This means there is no room for them to come down - so they are sort of just hanging out up above all the other teeth waiting to do something bad. So, that is a definite consult to ortho AND an oral surgeon. Apparently, you have to move teeth out of the way, and then (and I'm not making this up) put chains on the canines and slowly pull them down. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said. Cha-ching, cha-ching.


Sighh.....I guess it could be a lot worse. It was probably our most interesting day at the dentist, but hopefully we won't have any more surprises in the future!