In which we go to the dentist

Last May (that is, May 2009) we dutifully went to the dentist before leaving for France. The dentist observed that Sapphire had the beginning of a small cavity in one of her baby molars, but assured me that it would fall out long before it became a problem, and that it really wasn't worth bothering to fill it. So, we didn't, and we just kind of kept an eye on it and hoped that it would get loose and fall out.

Fast forward to this June, when Sapphire announced that her tooth hurt when she chewed, and when observation indicated that the tooth was not even the tiniest bit loose. I looked in the phone book and found a dentist office nearby, called to make an appointment, and scheduled one for the following evening.

The next evening, Tuesday, Sapphire and I headed over to the dentist's office. She took one look at Sapphire's tooth, agreed that something needed to be done, and gave us a prescription for the radiology lab so that we could have x-rays taken of Sapphire's mouth. She needed to decide whether it was better to fill the cavity or just to pull out the tooth.

Wednesday morning, Sapphire and I headed over to the radiology lab, hoping they would be able to take us right away, but prepared to schedule an appointment if necessary. As a fortunate consequence of getting there when it opened, they were able to take her yet that morning, and so after we had sat in the waiting room for a little while, they called Sapphire back and she got to bite on a little white mouthpiece while the x-ray camera moved around her head. (Did I mention that they seem to be big into panoramic x-rays around here?). Then we waited for them to develop the film, and walked out with the x-rays of Sapphire's teeth. (They seem to let everyone be responsible for their own x-rays here. I currently have, in my closet, chest x-rays for both Blaise and I, the results of my abdominal ultrasound, and Sapphire's dental x-rays. And that's from only one year.)

Then, Thursday afternoon, we were playing on the playground by our apartment, and Ezio was (not very wisely) swinging on the gate, which flew open and smacked Cherry in the mouth. Once we had staunched the bleeding, it was clear that none of her teeth had been loosened, but a big piece of her gum had been sliced off. Back to the dentist, this time with Cherry, to be told that the gum was fine (she hadn't sliced off enough of the gum to affect the roots of the teeth), but that she had three small cavities in need of filling.

So the next week we made three trips to the dentist. The first one, on Monday, was for Sapphire. The dentist looked at the x-ray, decided that the tooth wasn't going to come out anytime soon, cleaned it out, put in a temporary filling, and scheduled us to come back on Friday after school. Friday afternoon I went over with Cherry so that she could have her 3 cavities filled, an exercise that took perhaps a half hour and was done completely without drugs of any kind. Cherry didn't even flinch, although she was a bit suspicious of the blue light that the dentist used to set the fillings in her teeth. Then, two hours later, I went back with Sapphire, who also had 3 cavities filled--the big one that had been hurting her, and two smaller ones, all, fortunately, in baby teeth--again without any anesthetic. So now both of my daughters have French dental work, and Ezio is up next. According to the school dentist, he has two teeth in need of filling. Also according to the school dentist, we should be receiving a coupon to pay for his treatment, so I'll wait until it arrives to schedule his appointment. (I would have waited for Sapphire were it not for the fact that she left for camp on Monday.)