Keeping the Dentist in Business

Friday we went to the dentist.  All six kids and myself.  Our appointments started at 9:20 and we didn't leave until 12:40.  I brought the kids' homework along so that those who weren't being worked on could be productive (or at least that's what I was hoping for...).

BoyOne heard me scheduling these appointments a few weeks ago and ran upstairs crying.  He cried off and on on the way to the dentist and we had to give him nitrous oxide to calm him when we got there.  He finally told me why he is so scared of the dentist.  In Ukraine he had a cavity.  The dentist gave him something to drink that made him 'be silly' (what do you think this was??) and then proceeded to yank his tooth out.  Except he couldn't get it out, so he sent BoyOne home with a tooth sort of out, root exposed, to wait for the tooth to die and fall out the rest of the way on it's own.  He thinks he was about seven or eight.  Obviously, this caused him a lot of pain both during the appointment and after for a long time resulting in his fear of dentists.  

All the kids were due for their six month check up and cleaning, I had a crown that I needed started (back from when I got home from Ukraine with the boys nine months ago.  Guess I've been a little busy!), Four had a cavity that needed filled, and BoyOne had three.  During BoyOne's fillings, the dentist found another (I've honestly lost count of how many fillings this kid has had since coming home.  I think this is eleven.  No kidding.), totaling four for him.  During Four's cleaning, they found another little cavity in her very back molar, so they filled it along with her other cavity which happened to be in the very exact same place.  Two for her.  I'm pretty embarrassed to tell the rest, but here goes.  One has two cavities.  Two has, gulp, seven.  Three has one, Four is good now, BoyOne is good now and BoyTwo, bless him, doesn't have any cavities.  I 100% attribute this to the fact that we have to brush his teeth for him at least once a day.  Sometimes he will brush his own, but he does such a crappy job that we do it for him or at the very least, help him do it.  Prior to coming here, I'm quite certain that he had never really learned the proper way to brush his teeth and I'm also pretty sure that they didn't make sure he ever brushed his teeth! So this is a whole new experience for him.  My goal is that by the time he is nine he can brush his teeth by himself with supervision (read: someone standing there to make sure he really does it.  We have to do this with his 14 year old brother, so I'm just counting on having to do this for years...).

While BoyTwo doesn't have any cavities, he has a entirely different set of teeth problems.  Remember how he pulled his tooth out when it wasn't even loose?  Remember when we hosted the boys he had all of his baby teeth but when we went to Ukraine seven months later he had 'lost' eight or nine of them?  Yeah, well, evidently he has a habit of yanking his teeth out before they are ready to be lost.  This has caused kind of a big problem in his mouth.  Because he is pulling them out before they are ready, his other teeth have been shifting around and filling in the holes.  Then, the new permanent teeth that finally descend  grow into the wrong spot.  His teeth are so jacked up.  One look into his mouth and it is clear, but I was really thinking he just was missing teeth, not that they were growing into the wrong spots and that we needed to get him into an orthodontist ASAP!  Good thing it's summer!