Back in December, we took Alex to the dentist in Arizona. It was a dentist for kids and I was not impressed. They told us he had ten cavities and I left feeling like a horrible mom. We started flossing his teeth every night after that.
They called me in February and said they finally heard from our insurance about what would be covered (strange since I got that letter in the mail just a few days after our visit) and they were ready to set up an appointment to do the fillings. I told them we would find a dentist in Williston.
The dentist here isn't a kid dentist. He said he was willing to see Alex but if he wasn't cooperative then they would refer us to the kid dentist in Minot. I didn't want that to happen. Alex is so great when we brush and floss his teeth. It has gotten to the point where we can use it as a bribe. "If you don't pick up your toys then you won't get to floss." Very effective.
I brought the X-rays from the Arizona dentist to our appointment today. The Williston dentist looked at them and said he thought he might be able to see one cavity so he did his own X-ray on that one side to see the current condition of the cavity. He called it a knick, said he didn't want to bad mouth (punny) another dentist but it just looked like someone was trying to make money. He said he would never put a child through that kind of dental work to fill ten "cavities" just to say he did. He told us to come back in six months. It took me longer to fill out the paperwork than it took the dentist to totally wrap up the appointment!
Alex was a champion through the whole thing. A better title for this post would be "No fear." He has been so excited to go to the dentist for weeks. He kept saying, "I need to go to the dentist and get a check-up." He does better at the dentist than I do. He was opening his mouth wide, even when the dentist wasn't anywhere near him. He had his eyes closed because of the bright light and his mouth wide open. It was making me laugh. I left the dentist's office even more sure of how great of I kid I've got. I think I'll keep him.
4 comments:
Okay I would have been so mad at the Dentist in AZ. That happened to me as a kid and guess what....I know have like 7 teeth with those ugly silver/gray fillings for NO reason! so lame.
no, the title FEAR is appropriate because now you have instilled a HUGE fear within me that my kid does not have cavities and i was lied to. officially.freaked.out.
Before you give a child who did not grow up in poverty 10 fillings, you should send the Xrays to Denae or one of the family dentists to check it out!
Way to go Alex for being so brave! And that is crazy that the dentist would tell you that he had 10 cavities just to get some extra money! Where is this world coming to? You would seriously do that to a little kid just for some extra money?!
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