This afternoon the kids and I had dentist appointments.  I’m a little ashamed to admit that we haven’t been to the dentist since moving to CA, but one of the last things we did before leaving Iowa was getting our teeth cleaned.  I tried to get all of those little things taken care of before moving because I know I procrastinate horribly when it comes to making routine appointments.

I purposely scheduled all of our appointments at the same time and with the same dentist.  If I made appointments for the kids at a pediatric dentist, I wouldn’t make my own appointment until something went funky with one of my teeth.

In fact, what got me to the dentist when we lived in Iowa was cracking a tooth during a work flight home from San Diego.  You may assume that it was a pretzel or a peanut that was the culprit and you would be wrong.  It happened while I was chewing gum.  That tooth had been bothering me for months and it eventually just cracked in half.  It now has a crown.

Kamryn vaguely remembers the dentist we had in Iowa.  I think the remembers the fun play structure in the waiting room more than the actual dentist, but she asked to go first today.

Both kids had to go to the bathroom and I mentioned to Kamryn that if during my cleaning Rory had to pee, she would have to take him to the bathroom.  A few minutes later she told me she was a little nervous.  I told her that the dentist wasn’t going to hurt her.  She said, “No, not about that…I’m nervous about having to take Rory to the bathroom!”  Of course.

Rory, on the other hand was a little concerned and in a room filled with other waiting patients, he asked, “Is that guy going to hurt me?”  I told him he would not hurt him, that when he got his teeth cleaned it would probably tickle a little bit.  Unconvinced, he declared quite confidently, “No, he’s going to hurt me.”

All three of us got through our cleanings without a hitch.  The hygienist asked me the following questions:

Do you brush their teeth?  No

Do you floss their teeth?  No

Are they brushing twice a day?  No

Do they drink a lot of soda and juice?  No (that was a good “no” and I kind of shouted it because I knew it was the right answer.

How often do you floss your teeth?  Um

OK, how many times a week?  Um

Do you floss your teeth?  Do you mean, have I ever?

You don’t floss?  No

Do you brush your teeth?  Well yeah.

Twice a day?  Sometimes THREE times a day!

The best part was that there was absolutely NO judgement from the hygienist or the dentist!  I didn’t even get reprimanded for letting my 3 year old suck on a binky!  She told me not to beat myself up about it.

So for the next 6 months, I’m really going to try to floss because I don’t enjoy having the iron hook in my mouth and digging in my gums.  And also because I want to tell the dentist that I have been flossing!