First Trip to the Dentist

First Trip to the Dentist

This week we had a very first for little miss and I feel like a really really bad parent in relation to her care. Although the dentist reassured me that many families are impacted by poor teeth for their children, due to COVID lockdowns where mobile dentists and dentist trips in general were not permissible. I still feel like a really bad parent.

This week little miss had a pain in her mouth as she explained it, it was enough to send a shutter down my spine. I had a feeling it was a tooth problem as she said it hurt most... when she ate lollies.

No FREE Dental

In Australia we do not have free dental or subsidised dental and much of it needs to be paid for which, teeth are not a cheap experience. Fortunately for children there is a dental hospital but the wait times are long. You need to attend and wait all day, see a dentist and if you're lucky get booked in.

We attended a few weeks ago to bad news, little miss was suffering from tooth decay in her baby teeth. Although it isn't too bad as it is a baby tooth it can still be a problem if left unchecked and the problem expands to her adult teeth.

We were sent home after a clean and placed on a waiting list and told to call back if the problem became worse or anything changed.

Unfortunately, for us things got worse. Little Miss approached us to let us know her tooth was very very sharp. As all dad's do I put my fingers in her mouth to touch the problem and to my surprise got stabbed by a tooth!

What happened is the tooth chipped apart and she must have swallowed the other half leaving a sharp edge in her mouth!

Changing situation

We phoned the dental hospital up and they told us to come right in and see them so they could reassess her. Upon arrival they informed us she would need to be placed under a general anaesthetic so the dentist could remove the problem tooth.

This was the first time little miss has undergone any form of surgery so it was quite the scary experience for her. It was in part quite funny also. As she was being placed under she did become a little freaked out asking why people had three eyes and why everything was blurry.

Tooth Removed

The procedure didn't take all that long and she was back out with mum and dad in no time. Although extremely scared of the dentist now and lollies which has been a constant argument at home.

If you follow along my blogs you probably know I can be a bit of a health freak eating healthy and don't particularly eat sugar or sweets. Nan who often watches the kids most days so me and my wife can work always has to be the awesome nan that all nanna's are and buy the kids..... lots of sugar.

Often we can just throw it out when she is gone home from a visit. But because life has returned to normal and no more working from home as much she is able to take them out. So every day they are eating chocolate, take away foods and now their eating habits have gotten out of hand as they were turning off proper nutritious food. I say were, because recently that changed.

I don't want to come back

The dentist gave a good talking to little miss about how often she should be eating lollies.... sometimes. That she needs to listen to mum and dad about food and Nan needs to stop spoiling the kids with lollies and junk food.

Because if little miss doesn't listen she will be back to the dentist to pull out more teeth and once all her teeth are gone, they don't grow back and then she can't eat any food or lollies ever again!

Hopefully little miss has learned her lesson. The event also scared little bloke and he has been avoiding lollies and junkfood although at times says he wants McDonalds.....

How has your experience at the dentist with kids been? Teething is a scary health condition because I feel like it is the parents responsibility as it relates to teaching kids oral hygiene and proper diet.