The Golden Tooth

Sydney had her dentist appointment today. Lucky for me, Kory said he would take her. Wait a minute--I'll start from the beginning.

The 23rd of December Sydney was complaining about her tooth hurting. Once I got her to let me look in her mouth, I noticed she had a pretty big cavity in one of her baby molars. Crap. The one and only time she's been to the dentist, she wouldn't even let them count her teeth. We have been putting off taking her to the dentist because of the screaming and crying she did at her first visit. Well, this is the result of our procrastinating--a cavity--a BAD cavity. I got in touch with my friend to see what dentist she takes her son to. We got Sydney in to see the dentist the following Monday. Gulp.

I picked Syd up and brought her to the dentist office where Kory was going to take her in. As we were waiting in the car, I noticed tears rolling down Syd's face. I hugged her--I knew she was worried the whole drive in because she hardly said a word. Poor thing--I can't even imagine what's going through her little 'unsorted' brain at this point. She literally cannot process this kind of thing. One thing I have read about kids with Sensory Processing Disorder is that the dentist freaks them out--there is no processing that. Kory drove up, and Sydney said she wanted me to come in with them. Another gulp.

She was crying as we got out of the car and walked into the building. She cried even harder when we got in the building. I kept telling myself to keep it together. The gal gave me the paperwork and I tried to concentrate on filling it all out and not pay attention to my stressed out child.

They called Sydney back, and she was crying again. Kory went back with her. Pretty soon, they had her in the chair, and I could hear her screaming, "No No!" That's it. The tears are now streaming down my face. So I finished filling out the paperwork, and I left. What a great mom huh? Not.

They could not take x-rays that day. They were able to count her teeth, but that was it. They set up the appointment to do a partial root canal and fill the tooth. Even though it's a baby tooth, it will be a few years before she loses it, so if they just pulled it, the other teeth would move and there would not be room for the permanent tooth. They said that the day of the appointment they would give her a kool-aid cocktail (sedative), let it take effect, and then give her laughing gas. Okay--I think she'll be okay. That's what I told myself. I knew it wouldn't be okay.

Kory took Sydney in today for her appointment. He thought the sedative was working--she was getting sleepy. Then when they took her back, her braveness disappeared. They gave her gas but they could not get her to calm down. They ended up coming out and asking Kory for permission to hold her down, otherwise she would have to go to a surgery center at another time, so he said hold her down. He said he could hear her screaming and crying. He was sending me up-to-the minute text messages telling me what was going on. Pretty soon I had to ask him to stop--I had to shut my office door--I was in tears. Thank goodness I didn't have to be there. I would have been a mess.

When I got home after work tonight, the first thing Sydney said to me was, "Hey Mom! Look at my golden tooth!!" She proudly showed it to me, and she said she can't wait to show it to her friends on Monday. Wow--what a trooper. Must not have been so bad.

This was harder on me than her, that's for sure. She was more brave than me.

My hope with days like these is that Syd will look back on them and get some confidence that even though there will be difficult and scary things in life, she will live through them and be just fine. I hope she remembers that.