Day at the Dentist

Thomas and I went to the dentist yesterday. Actually, my mom and Toby came along, too, although they weren't seen by the dentist. Earlier this spring, I asked my mom to make check-up appointments for the two of us and to see if the office would go ahead and schedule some time to fill a cavity for me, since I knew I had at least one. I had had it since I was pregnant with Toby but the dentist I saw at the time didn't want to fill it while I was pregnant. I know, I know, that was over a year and a half ago, but it was one of those things that I kept putting off and then we moved. There are dentists in Germany, but because we are Americans, we get to pay full price (it's essentially free for the Germans), and it's in euros and, from what I've been told, they are not as thorough, especially with their cleanings.

Thomas and I had our cleanings at the same time. We were in adjacent rooms. I was so proud of him. This was his first real visit to the dentist. When he was younger, he had a heightened fear of anything new, so I never made him go the dentist. At three, they would have had to tie him down, probably sedate him for any kind of work and at four there still would have been a lot of crying and hollering...but at five he was very brave and did very well. Unfortunately, he had three small cavities and one large one, all in the back molars. I was surprised when the dentist offered to fill half of them yesterday. I really didn't know how that would go, especially when he whipped out the drill. The dentist gave him the laughing gas, and turned on the TV on the ceiling. He changed his mind and said if Thomas would tolerate having them all filled today, then he'd just go ahead and do them all. The first three were pretty easy and then he started drilling into the fourth. At that point, Thomas jerked his knee a little and we knew it was time to give him a shot. The dentist was so discreet about it that Thomas still doesn't know he had a shot. Once the shot took effect, the dentist was able to work away.

Then, it was my turn. I had a small one and a large one. One on the top left and the other on the bottom right. I had four shots, and was quite numb when I was done. (Which took about six hours to go away). My mouth, my face and my tongue were numb. The only part of my mouth that wasn't numb was a small strip down the center of my tongue and the center of my lips! I found out yesterday that the bones in the top of my mouth are rather large. I've never been told that one before!

We spent a total of four hours at the dentist's office. I was so glad my mom came along and entertained Toby and Thomas too, when he wasn't being worked on. It was a long day for all of us, but I'm so glad it's all done now!

Until later,

Emily