Last week wonderkid was very much under the weather. She was tired, and stuffed up, and just generally sickly. On thursday, I had to pull her out of bed and put her in the car in her jammies so I could take MJ to school. I got out of the car in front of the school to help MJ with her cello, and chat with a couple of other moms. When I got back into the car five minutes later, Wonderkid had curled up onto Madalyn's seat and had started to fall asleep.
Fortunately the cold was short lived and she was feeling better just in time to don her Statue of Liberty costume and scour the streets for candy (which is exactly what kid coming off of a sickness needs...).
Unfortunately for her, however, the celebratory period was short lived. On monday night she asked if I could help her dig an apple peel out of her tooth. When I peeked in her mouth, I was shocked to see that a big chunk of tooth had broken off one of her molars. My mom alarm went off immediately, Because I knew it was that tooth, that horrible little devil of a tooth has already caused us so much pain and heartache. It all started three years ago when the dentist noticed a tiny little cavity had grown in a tiny little crack on the side of her tooth. It will be a quick and easy fix, the dentist promised, we'll have her in and out faster than she can say, ouch. Unfortunately this was not to be the case. Wonderkid screamed and cried through the entire procedure. She kept telling the dentist that it hurt, it hurt really bad, and the dentist kept telling her she couldn't be in pain because her mouth was numb. She cried and she screamed until they had to bring in several people to hold her down. I was doing my best to comfort her and encourage her, but by this point she was just inconsolable. The dentist then turned to me and condescendingly said, She really needs to behave mom. What do you even say in a situation like that?
Unfortunately because of all of the wiggling and struggling, the whole procedure was a disaster. The dentist took off much more of her tooth than was necessary, and there was a huge crack right down the middle of her molar.
A few days later I had to tell my little girl she was going to have go back for another filling. It's a different dentist, I told her, it's going to be very, very different. She was scared, but still believed me. I said a little prayer and I hoped things would be much better. She cried when they went in with the needle, but didn't scream or struggle. Then something amazing happened. What's wrong with me Mom, my cheek is all tingly? I was confused that she was confused, hadn't it felt like this before? Hadn't it?
This was the point when I got that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was it possible that the anesthetic hadn't worked the first time around? When the dentist came in to do the procedure this time around she was perfectly behaved. Afterwards she turned to me, and in a shocked voice said, Mom you were right it didn't hurt! This pretty much confirmed my suspicions. I can't tell you how many times I've relived that day, when nobody believed her when she said it hurt. We still go to the same office, but I refuse to let my girls see that same dentist, mostly because I'm afraid I might try to punch her in the face or something. I know she didn't hurt my girl on purpose, but you know those motherly instincts are pretty hard to stifle.
Anyway, as you've probably already guessed, wonderkid had to have this same tooth filled again this week. Apparently a cavity grew underneath the old filling, causing part of it to break off. Fortunately they caught it before it turned into something worse. I was very thankful for that, because seriously the last thing this kid needs is a root canal. She was very good for this filling, and the dentist even let her hold a mirror and watch the entire procedure. I have to admit, I don't even think I could have done that much. While we were waiting for her mouth to numb up she played around with one of the apps on my phone:
Because even spongebob has to go to the dentist yo! The dentist seemed to think this was the best invention ever, and even asked if we could do elmo. Wonderkid had to inform him that she is way past elmo...
In more unfortunate news, we also discovered this week that Wonderkid's six year molars didn't form correctly and are going to be very prone to cavities, even with good flossing and brushing. Right now she has one cavity, and it's in a tooth that hasn't even come in all the way. Don't worry, the dentist told us, this one is teeny tiny and will be easy to fix. It looks like we are back to square one all over again.
This poor girl needs a break!


