Faith had her appointment yesterday to get the final two, of eight, cavities filled. It has been quite the ordeal. I took her to the dentist about six months ago and the dentist told me that she had a cavity in every tooth. I couldn’t believe it. I suspected that she might have a few, but not twenty. It was partly mine and Tom’s fault and part genetics. We were not diligent in making her brush and floss every night. I have a feeling she may have soft teeth as well. Needless to say, we floss and brush every night now. So, the first dentist wanted to take Faith to the hospital, put her under and fix every tooth. This was going to cost us more than $5000. Ridiculous! I started calling around to other dentists and trying to find someone who would give her nitrous and try to fix a few at a time. We found Dr. Kibbler who said that he would fix two at a time without nitrous. He was fantastic! He fixed four cavities in two trips. The third trip, however, didn’t go so well. Faith screamed and cried the whole time. You would have thought that she was getting her leg cut off back there. I decided that after that experience we needed some drugs to get the others done. I felt bad leaving Dr. Kibbler because he was great, but Faith was not going to do well again, I was sure. I then went to see Laxer, Long and Savage. They were so encouraging and kind. They took x-rays of her teeth and told me that there were only 3 more cavities that they would need to fix. That put us at a total of eight fillings…not twenty! What was the first guy thinking? Anyway, we tried nitrous and got one filling done. Then yesterday we went in and they gave her an oral setative and nitrous and we finally got the last two cavitities filled! Finally! We were done!
I took Faith to the store after her trip to get her a prize. She was hilarious!! She was still a little loopy from the drugs. She was touching everything in the store and saying, “Ooohh, that is so pretty.” She went up to the jewelry counter and tried to look closely at the diamond rings but her depth perception was a little off. She leaned in and bumped her head into the glass. She just giggled. We had a fun time at the store. She ended up choosing to buy new shiny pink flip flops and a pair of sunglasses. (She already had on the Snow White dress). She definitely drew some attention at the store.
I am so glad that I didn’t go with the first dentist’s plans. It would have cost us a fortune and Faith would have had work done on her mouth that wasn’t necessary. The eight teeth that were fixed were molars and canines. The little teeth up front she will be loosing in the next few years anyway. As a parent, I have learned that it is so important to get a second opinion and to go with what you think to be right. You are your child’s best advocate. Doctors may have their opinions and plans but you are the one to make the final decision when it comes to your child’s welfare. It took me many phone calls and dentist visits, but the path that we took was worth it. I found two great dentists that were willing to listen to what I wanted and needed them to do. Thanks Dr. Kibbler and Dr. Savage!