Sunday, February 25, 2007

Dental musings

Well, we all went to the dentist, and, well, Daan still has perfect teeth. Douwe has a cavity in one of his molars. It is to be filled a week from Monday. His father will be taking him for the appointment as he has to have something done to his teeth, too.

So I am once more faced with the conundrum of the novacain, as the assistant tells me they let the child decide whether he wants any. This was mentioned in an aside as the dentist spent much of his time trying to convince me that putting a filling in a baby tooth was worth the trouble. I don't know why he was trying to convince me, I mean it will be a couple of years before his molars come out if I recall correctly. No sense in letting his teeth rot out in the mean time. Oh, yes, and reassuring me that the filling won't be amalgam.

Well, my mouth is full of mercury and so are both my parents' mouths and we haven't gone mad or...er, probably haven't gone mad for any reason related to the teeth anyway. But okay, I don't mind white fillings either.

The "let the child decide" policy appears to be the outside edge of liberality from a dentit around here.

Well, I chose this dentist because all the mommies are nuts about him. But on the other hand, what do they know, they probably have people go into their mouths with a Black & Decker without anasethetic also. Maybe there's a local gene for high pain tolerance, I dunno. They all look at me and say something like "Well, it's not like getting a shot or anything,". Like a shot is really bad but a filling,well, that's just a walk in the park.

Did I move to Holland or to Looking Glass Land?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do whatever it takes to make it plesant for Douwe. I still turn into a bowl of jelly every time I go to the denist. I had a denist as a child that got his degree at Horror University. The only way I get work done is with Novacain, Nitrous and a radio with earphone that blocks out the sound. (The earphones are a new addition and work wonders. I smetimes think they are better than the nitrous.)

Anonymous said...

Well, it ain't Kansas, but it could still be somewhere over the rainbow, I suppose.

Let the child decide? When do 4-5-6 year olds have the background to do that? I think that is what parents are for.

Old saying is 'do what you think is right' and ask for forgiveness if later it is provn to be wrong.....

Dad