Eve had a dentist appointment today to have a tooth extracted. The big tooth behind is about a quarter way in and almost sideways, while the baby tooth isn’t even loose yet. The dentist strongly encouraged taking out that baby tooth to allow room for the big one to grow in straighter.
Eve strongly disagreed. She disagreed last night and again this morning. She stomped her feet, slammed doors, and yelled “It’s my body so I should get to decide what happens to it!” You go girl! Except when mom says otherwise.
I picked her up at 11:45 today and she amped up her protests. She crossed her arms and stamped her feet and refused to move. When I tried to move her she cried and fought back. I tried bribes (your favorite smoothie from Panera!), and rationalizing (painful braces for years!), and eventually resorted to threats (no field hockey game tonight!) before she got in the car, with much gusto, yelling, and door slamming. Repeat process to get her out of the car and in to the dentist’s office.
There the nice lady at the desk said the dentist was running about half an hour late. Ugh! I asked if Eve could at least eat her lunch while we wait and she went back to check on the specifics of the procedure and see if eating would be ok. She came back a few minutes later to say that they were going to open another chair, she was going to assist, and the dentist would run two procedures at the same time. Sure, I guess that’s better then fighting with Eve in the waiting room for half an hour!
As it turned out, we have a new dentist now. They sent out a letter several weeks ago saying the practice had been sold to a new guy and the transition would begin. I was not excited about that when I got the letter, shortly after our awful last visit to the dentist, and dreaded even more change in the office. Turns out it was change for the better!
It took me, the hygienist (lady from the front desk), and the new dentist all working together to convince her to get into the chair. He PROMISED he was just going look at her teeth and assess the situation. She very grudgingly got into the chair and even more grudgingly opened her mouth. He took a look and then started telling us that the new research shows its better to leave the baby teeth in and let nature take it’s course a bit longer. He said that new studies have shown that when you remove baby teeth all of the other teeth loosen up a bit, taking up more space then they should and not allowing the others to come in properly. I think that’s what he said anyway. Basically you end up with the opposite result than you expected. He also said that studies in the past didn’t take into account growth and the extra space that creates. All said and none, this new dentist recommended NOT taking out the tooth, at least not yet. He said we should let that new tooth get at least three quarters of the way in and then reassess, assuming the baby tooth is still in the way.
And just like that Eve was right back to her old self! Chatty, smiling, happy. She ate her sandwich in the car and I brought her back to school. Now I’m home, recovering from the emotional beat-down, and she is enjoying the rest of her day with all her teeth still intact!