BAD Tooth.

[la_rainette]

OK, so the invitations to Tadpole's birthday party have been mailed, with a very comprehensive map and many explanations from Husband on how to get to our house (cos hey, lots of one-way streets and our street is a tiny dead-end). Husband explains in details how to get here from the East, from the West, from the South, and with the public transportation i.e. from the North. I kindly refrained from pointing out that Our Alien Friends who are coming from the sky will most probably get lost and be very offended that their special case hasn't been taken in consideration.

I made an extra invitation for Froglet, put in an envelope and called Tadpole to give it to her sister.

Tadpole *hands envelope to Froglet* That's for you.
Froglet: Oh! What is it?
Tadpole *importanly* an invitation to my birthday party!
Froglet: Oh! Thank you!
Tadpole: You're welcome!

And then they sat down and opened the envelope together, and marvelled at the cheerful, pretty Miss Kitty invitation card. :D

And -- Froglet is having a so-so day.

I pulled her out of school today, because she has been complaining about a sugar-sensitive tooth-ache, and since it was that time in her life anyways, I made an appointment at the doctors. Cos hey. Booster shots.

Needles.


I had promised an ice-cream if she behaved (she didn't but she got an ice-cream anyway), and yet, when the doctor came in with his assistant and she saw the needles, OMG, long and shiny and pointy, she freaked out big time, screamed and kicked and fought, and they took her by surprise as she was struggling, and she was concentrating so hard on fighting their hands off that she never even felt it when they got her.

So for the second shot, she just sat there and whimpered ow ow ow ow ow ow, as big, hot tears streamed down her little face, and then we were done.

rainette *hugs the froglet*: did it hurt much?
Froglet *very small voice, slightly surprised tone*: not very much
rainette *giggles*
Froglet *smiles sheepishly and wipes tears away*

Tadpole screamed too, at first, because she didn't quite understand why Froglet should have the doctor's undivided attention, and she insisted on showing the Doctor her boo-boo (and was offended when the doctor had a hard time spotting the tiny boo-boo on her hand). But once the needles came out, she stopped fidgeting and asking for a turn, I have to say. She just sat there and watched with interest, and looked for Blood.

(For little kids are a blood-thirsty bunch. Whenever I howl in pain because I have cut/burned myself, the froglings arrive at full speed. "Can I see?" is the first question out of their mouths, and my mum says I used to do it too, to her. *shrugs* Healthy scientific interest, I guess. ;) )

Next came the dentist and the bad news.

My Froglet is a Very Good Girl. Thanks to regular brushing, her baby teeth are perfect and clean and in her almost six years of life (albeit only 5 1/2 with teeth), she hasn't had one single cavity. But. It appears that one of her new molars is flaky and fragile. It's so brand-new it isn't even completely out yet, but already there is a cavity that hurts when she eats sweet stuff, and that cavity needs to be treated.

The good news is that apparently the other Big Girl's teeth are fine and healthy, it is just this one tooth for now, but it will have to be checked regularly, and chances are it will need further fillings, even maybe a crown at some point ("in 20 years", he said, but still. He anticipates all sorts of problem with that tooth.) Hopefully, her other teeth will be OK, too. *sighs*

And then we went and had an ice-cream, the three of us, cos the girls certainly deserved a treat for being so good.

Froglet has an appointment in two weeks to treat the tooth, poor kid :( At least it won't hurt anymore after that.

Comments

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

She'll feel so much better after it's treated. I'm like that - I've had rotten teeth since childhood. Every time I go to the dentist, there are more cavities to fill. *hugs for all of you*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* it seems so unfair, though. Especially after I've made such a BIG DEAL out of brushing your teeth every day, and how your teeth will rot if you don't. *sighs*

Yeah, and I feel your pain too, I am in the same situation (although I guess it would help if I wasn't a professional procrastinator when it comes to going to the dentist's is concerned. The girls go regularly. I don't.)

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. where did that syntax come from? Me Speak English like Spanish Cow with a Cold. *laughs* OK, I'm going to leave it right there, you know what I meant anyways ;).

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Silly. Didn't you know? The Aliens have been monitoring your internet transmissions and have an electronic track to your house. They'll be beaming directly down.

In fact, they're probably in your closet right now.

...Did you hear that noise?

(Also, OW. Poor Froglet.)

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

I checked the closet, and damn, the cat puked in it again.

In other news, Froglet is staying home because her arm hurts. I am not utterly convinced, but I remember experiencing disomfort after vaccinations, and since she's really good about going to school ususally, I'm going to let this pass. *shrugs* She's in Senior Kindergarten, anyway, it's not like they're going to learn to read without her today.

[notions.livejournal.com]

Can I see?

yesss! Asked all the time.

Annnd I must say again, your girls are Too Cute.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D Thank you *hugs* Yes, they always want to see BLOOD! OMG! Look, BLOOD! And an owie that doesn't bleed properly disappoints them terribly, as if you couldn't hurt without some bloodshed.

[gypsyjr.livejournal.com]

Aww, that's rough. Give her a hug for me. :)

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D I did, and she liked it, so we both say thank you. (We love hugs.) *hugs*

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

Oooo, poor baby! I have a death fear of teh needle - i can't even look at one any more. Whenever i give blood, it's like a penance cause the needle they use scares me so badly.
*sympathizes massively*

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D I'm pretty cool with needles, even though the nurses miss the veins 3 times out of 4 (my veins tend to play hide-and-seek with the needles: peek-a-boo! You didn't get me, lalalalalala!)

Froglet used to be quite OK with them, only now she's seen so many book against Teh Fear of Teh Ebil Needle, and talked so much with her friends that she is really scared of them.

The first time they took Tadpole's blood (she was 3 days old, and it's routine procedure, to check for some specific, treatable diseases), the nurse stuck the tiny needle in, and then started looking for the vein, very carefully.

And Tadpole purely and simply fell asleep before she had found it. :D

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

*hugs Froglet from afar, also Rainette for being a Good Mum*

Do you know, I have that exact same thing with my teeth? *pulls left lip back to show off steel crown* When I was about two, I had a high fever that destroyed the calcium in some of my back teeth (according to my dentist. I'm not sure quite how that works).

Anyhow, I have resin fillings in two and a crown on the third; the fillings went in when I was fourteen and the crown when I was sixteen.

So you can tell Froglet that Sam knows just how she feels :D

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Hah! That's pretty much what the dentist told me, too (only he said she must have had a fever when the teeth were being formed, and it affected their quality). And I actually remember her one big fever (her temperature went up to 41 celsius, that's 105.8, my converter tells me), she was delirious and complained that there were flying hippos on the ceiling and eyes in the cupboard. Yeah, it was that bad. *shudders* Otherwise, that kid is never sick, so WTF?

I told her your story, and she hugged me ("ow, my arm") and was very pleased that you Shared A Condition with her, and it all went well until I mentioned the crown. And then she looked at me with that perplexed, "you're pulling my leg" smile of hers. "How can a tooth have a crown?", she asked.

Damn. I hadn't anticipated that one. And I don't know that my explanation what dentistically correct, but what the heck, my dentist is unable to explain the easiest grammar point in English, so I don't think I am supposed to know All About Crowns either. I did my best, and now she Wants A Crown too. Heh. Kids. :D

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL! Tell her she may have one when she's a grownup, and that they're neat because they're smoother than regular teeth.

I think it's called a crown because originally they only fit on the top of the tooth, and looked like a little crown sitting there....

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Well, I showed her my ceramic crown, and I could see the little wheels clicking away in her brain... If I remember right, the next stage is, let's get rid of all these troublesome real teeth and have dentures, they look better and they hurt less (that's what I thought when I was about ten, anyways. Neddless to say my perspective has changed since ;) )

I did tell her they were called crowns because they fit on the top of the tooth, only, you know, top would be tête in French (i.e. it also means head), and she was nonplussed: "teeth have heads?" *headthunk*

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Ah, the joys of raising intelligent bilingual children...:D

They do offer dental implants now, I saw it on TV the other day -- if you have a tooth extracted you can have a fake one "installed", apparently.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I've read about implants. Only they cost an arm and a leg, and in these conditions I think a tooth is more expendable :D (especially since Birthday Preparation Items also cost an arm and a leg. I need the other set for Froglet's birthday next month *headthunk*)

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say that one of Danae's brand-new Grown-up Teeth is bad, too. The dentist said that it just came out without whatever protective coating it was supposed to have, and has a cavity almost built-in. I'd never heard of that, but he said it's fairly common and has nothing to do with not brushing properly or anything--just the way the tooth is formed.

So, no bad parenting or anything. :) Made me feel awful, though, because I've never had a cavity and was convinced that Proper Dental Hygiene would make for Perfect Teeth.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY! That's exactly what happened to Froglet, too, and I feel bad as hell, too. The dentist told me it may have to do with a fever she had when she was younger, at the time these teeth get formed, and it is apparently a fairly common thing.

Still, how FRUSTRATING. Especially for them, you know, when you keep telling them to brush well to protect their teeth from cavities and they get them anyways. Grrrr.

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

Hey, I STILL like blood! *pouts* Am so not childish! I just like icecream and blood (but not too close together)

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Blood and icecream, and you always post at night? Muffy, do you truly live in Australia, or are you really a Vampire?

:D

Yes, I still have the fascination for blood too, sometimes, but I can't watch it like I used to. They have this show, Skin Deep, where they show plastic surgeries (real life ones), and once they showed a brow-lifting surgery: so you open up the scalp at the top of your victim's patient's head, you put a tiny (metallic, how to you get away with that at security in airports, I wonder) screw in the skull and you tie a piece of string from the corner of the brow to the screw, and to do that you have to slide the string under the skin.

Well. This is one procedure I watched, and will never go through, I swear. Cos the loosened skin on the forehead, making weird shapes because you push Stuff underneath, is truly creepy.

[levi.livejournal.com]

Ooo, poor Froglet. I just have Horribly Bad Teeth (due to not being taught good hygiene, and also genes). At the most, I have 2 teeth that have not had cavities and I have to get something like 6 crowns (because of root canals). And I need braces. And if I had the money I'd get them all pulled and have implants put in.

But give Froglet good luck and hugs from me and hopefully her other grown up teeth will be fine.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

Oh, wah! Yes, implants are horribly expensive (but I know how you feel!)

From what the dentitst said, it can also be linked with childhood diseases: he says Froglet's problems are probably linked with a high fever she had when she was small, poor mite. *sighs*

She's pleased with the hug, BTW, thank you.