Dentist

Last week, Mali had her first official dentist visit.  She has gone twice in Ouray at my mom's previous place of work, but this was the real deal.  That Monday she had been eating just taco meat and complained of pain in her teeth and was crying so I knew we had to go and stop putting off the inevitable.  Many people recommended a children's dentist here and it was a great experience for Mali.  She just had her teeth cleaned and x-ray's taken but they made it a very positive experience.  She wore headphones and watched tv on the ceiling during her cleaning. It was a very fun environment for her and she even asked to go back.  She was very proud of her clean, white teeth.  Mali got lots of instructions too on the best teeth care.  I learned a huge lesson too, and this is key for ALL of you moms out there.  Natural and logical consequences when it comes to tooth brushing are NOT worth it!  As we do with many many things, this was a huge battle.  I used to sit on Mali or hold her down and brush her teeth.  It was getting harder and harder to jam a toothbrush into her mouth and really quite sad...so I left it in her hands.  I monitored and encouraged it for sure but Mali would often "forget", lie or just do a poor job.  Plus she hasn't been gifted genetically in the teeth cavity area.  She came out of the appointment with 6....SIX cavities...in her BABY teeth at a grand total of fixing them for $2,300.  I know she is in pain so we will get them fixed but I'm wondering if sitting on her to brush and floss her teeth is more worth it than the pain of forking up that much money on teeth that will just fall out.  Mali goes back on November 18th for her first two fillings to be fixed.  They are close to the root and we are praying that fillings will be all that she needs and not more invasive treatment.