I used to like our dentist. We’ve gone to her for a decade or more. When she left one inconveniently-located mall dentist office, we followed her to one that was somewhat more convenient. We would have followed her to an even less convenient place because I find dental visits stressful and Ken doesn’t like change. When I finally admitted that the spot on Reid’s 2 front teeth was a cavity, I initially called a dental practice that specialized in treating children and adolescents. Advice from a friend that I might be surprised at how good Reid would be at the regular dentist - and also be surprised at the cost of the specialist - led me to book with our family dentist for Monday.

And Dr H was FABULOUS! She showed Reid how the chair went up, up, up and then way down and then back up a bit before it reclined. The dentist handed Reid a mirror to watch her work. They counted Reid’s teeth and then the dentist used the “tooth tickler” to check out Reid’s teeth. The dentist had time to fix the cavities and so increased the gap between Reid’s front teeth to get the decay and make it easier to clean them. Before each activity, Dr H explained what would happen and showed Reid the tool and how it would work. Maybe that is standard procedure for dentists these days but it definitely wasn’t when I was a kid.

I’d been afraid that Reid would pick up on my stress but once the dentist got started, there was no stress to pick up on. I don’t know that I’d say “a good time was had by all” but I’m pretty sure Reid enjoyed herself. It’s good to be a kid in 2007.