Our Day at the Dentist.

Yesterday. The "Kid Dentist" called to remind me of an appointment I had today at 8:00am.

Today. Any remnant of the Dentist Appointment is completely gone. No memory of it what-so-ever.

We get down stairs, we're late just getting off to school. It's 8:20 and school starts in 10 minutes. I grab my phone and see that I missed a call this morning. I listen to the message and hear... "This is Kidz Dental Works. You had an appointment for Hailey, Brooklyn, Dylan and Anneliese at 8:00am. We're just wondering if you're on your way. Please call us." Crap! How did I forget from yesterday until today? It's even on my schedule on my phone. I call them. Surely there's no way we're going to be doing this today. I'm already 30 minutes late and I haven't even left yet.

I call them up. "How fast can you get here?" It would take me 25-30 minutes to get there. I would be an HOUR late for my appointment. "Come right down. We'll just squeeze everyone in." I'm not sure if this is good or bad but I mumble for everyone to get in the car and with Zach's help we manage to get all 4 kids in the van in a short... 10 minutes. (Hey! There's a lot of shoes, coats, backpacks, blankies and of course we can't go without everyone brushing their teeth!) I say goodbye to Zach thinking again about how he's got the easier job of just... working. We take the back-roads and get there in record time.

I enter. "Hi, I'm the special Mom that can't remember our appointments even though you called to remind me yesterday." "Hi Mrs. Olsen. Thanks for coming so quickly." My middle 2 kids go first, their teeth are cleaned and they're off playing. I'm waiting for my 9 yr old and my 2 yr old to get done. This is Anneliese's first time in the chair and she's a little apprehensive about them sticking all of those things in her mouth but she did very well and apart from trying to bite the lady a couple of times I think all and all things went pretty well. I send her off to play in the playroom while I wait for my oldest. I turn to see Hailey sobbing and shaking in the chair muttering about how it hurts. I walk over and ask the "teeth cleaning lady" what's up.

My mind is spinning... I'm pretty "Hitler-ish" when it comes to brushing and flossing teeth and we usually walk out without any cavities or problems. I'm getting nervous because the lady is having a hard time poking around, Hailey is crying and all I can think about is all those new adult teeth she has and wondering if we already have a cavity in one of them. The "teeth cleaning lady" (I'm sure there's a technical name for it... probably "youth teeth cleaning specialist" or "managing director over pediatric oral care" or something.) informs me that there are some spots that she can tell have not been brushed in quite some time. The gums are bleeding, there's a lot of food caught and I'm shocked. I thought she was the one I didn't really have to worry about.

Oh... there's more though. She said that there are some baby teeth that are on TOP of her adult teeth that have been hanging on by a thread, could fall out any moment and food is getting caught under the baby tooth and on top of the new tooth. K- So.. I'm confused. She says they're so loose she's surprised that they haven't fallen out on their own.

"Let's just pull them out!" I say. Then I figure out what the whole dilemma is. Hailey starts crying and shaking.. "Please don't pull them out! Please! Just. Don't. Pull. Them. Out." Whoa! I thought we were SO beyond this. She's NINE! We've done this SO many times before!

I'm trying to think fast. I bribe her. I tell her I'll make homemade caramels (her favorite dessert) if she'll let the lady pull them out. "NO!. Don't pull them out!" The lady says she'll put this stuff on it so she won't even feel it. She won't even notice. "No! PLEASE!?! Don't! Just leave me alone!" Just to let everyone know... this is NOT normal behavior for her, in fact I don't think that I've seen her this way since she was 2! Very odd!

The lady finally gave up and lets us know that the Dentist will be out shortly. I inform my daughter that she can either do it here and I'll make caramels for her for dessert tonight or I will take her straight home, yank them out myself and she will NOT get caramel tonight. Well... that didn't work. She just starts crying more and pleading with me. Then she had to go to the bathroom. I let her go and I wait for her outside the bathroom. While I was waiting, I devised a plan.

I hear her flush and wash her hands. I walk into the bathroom and she takes one look at my face and let's out a scream. It was as if she was the victim in some horror movie that had just been cornered by the mass murderer. Not the reaction I was hoping for from my daughter but it was evident that she knew of my plan. I quickly cover her mouth with my hand so that people don't think that the poor girl is being beaten to death with a toothbrush or something and I calmly explain. "I am going to put my finger in your mouth and feel each tooth. I am going to wiggle each tooth. That is all. I will let you know if I am going to do anything else. I promise." She pleads once again to not pull out her teeth. I tell her that is not what I'm going to do. (yet) I wiggle a couple, I tell her they are very loose. Oh my heck! They're so loose I'm surprised the girl has been able to eat without them coming right off and swallowing them! I tell her there is one on the top and I'm going to see if I can grab it. I won't pull, I'm just going to see if I can grab it. She agrees and makes me pinky-swear to tell her if my plan changes. Pinkies are interlocked in agreement. This is pretty serious.

I grab the first tooth and it seriously just came right off into my fingers! It was an accident! I didn't pull or anything! I think she could tell from my shock that I didn't do it on purpose and allows me to try to grab another. I pinch another one between my fingers and tell her I'm going to pull it out... right (pull)... now! It comes off with no effort. I set it down. I continue on... I pull another one... and another one and ANOTHER ONE! YES, that's right people!! FIVE TEETH I pulled out of her mouth! ALL of them were barely holding in there. By some miracle they didn't come off while she was eating or they didn't just fall out somewhere.

I'm kind of in awe. I don't know what to say. She didn't cry at all while I was pulling them out. She was fine. We rinse out her mouth. I ask for some gauze because it is bleeding a little bit. We get a little box to put her teeth into. She walks out of the bathroom calm and collected. As we go to sit back into the dentist chair she smiled, started to cry and said "Thank you so much for pulling my teeth out Mom! I was too afraid to eat and I felt like I couldn't brush my teeth right and they've REALLY been bothering me for a long time! It feels so good to have them out!" I'm more shocked than before! "Hailey! Why didn't you tell me!" "I was too afraid that it would hurt!"

She got a couple extra toys out of the drawer at the dentist for being so brave which made my 2nd daughter furiously wiggle all of her teeth to see if there were any she could pull out for a toy. I made her caramel when she got home from school as promised. We went out to dinner tonight and she commented that it was so much easier to eat. Wow! Who knew! I had no idea she'd been struggling with this! It's not like I ask to check my 9 year old's teeth every so often. She had the brushing and flossing down when she was 6 and I never looked back!

The moral of the story? Yeah... I don't know. What I do know is that sometimes to be a good Mom you just have to corner your kid in the bathroom, cover their mouth to stop the screaming and yank their teeth out with your bare hands. It takes guts and it might be embarrassing if you're doing it at the Dentist's office but everyone feels a lot better in the end.