....in the form of a 5.5 year old. And I swear, he is winning. Kids aren't supposed to win these battles.
This dental "adventure" with Carter has gotten the best of me. As a recap, we first started taking Carter to THE.BEST pediatric dentist in the valley. Or so we were told. He got through his cleanings with flying colors. Then, at one of the visits, they took updated x-rays and dropped a bomb on us: he needed some serious work done to all of the molars in his mouth. Because little kids can only tolerate so much, they had to work in quadrants. This dentist was able to get all of the work on the bottom portion of Carter's mouth done (one crown, one baby root canal, and one extraction with a spacer) before Carter caught on to the game. He then wouldn't go a single step out of the waiting room.
So the plan at that point was either: (a) take him to the hospital and pay a HUGE amount of cash out of pocket....because, you know, dental insurance doesn't cover shit; or (b) take him to an out-patient facility and have them do the work. For $1,500. Not exactly an option either.
At that point, I put my foot down and decided to try a different pediatric dentist. Another one highly recommended by my friends. I actually fired the other one simply because they told us they weren't going to try again with Carter, "but let's schedule the next cleaning!" Uh, no. Plus, here's my other issue. They do x-rays with Carter at the very first session. The next x-rays done suddenly reveal all of these issues in his mouth? We did the brushing and the flossing. So what caused this? Or did they just not read the x-rays correctly the first time? Either way, time to move on from these people. So, we get Carter in to the new dentist and the first session on the top of his mouth goes wonderfully. Another crown under his belt and another baby root canal.
Since that time, we have had, yet again, two failed appointments. Carter basically has a meltdown the second that dentist walks in. If the assistant could administer the shot, we would be golden. But for some reason, that dentist totally freaks him out. And let me tell you, there was some major bribery in full force this time around - we had the Big Al's card all loaded with money to go play games, and there was a surprise present waiting for Carter in the car after the dental appointment. He held that Big Al's card the entire appointment. So excited to go play games and win prizes.
Didn't work. You could not pry that child's mouth open.
So again, we were referred to out-patient. All that is left is ONE FILLING. How much are those total - $200? I simply refuse to pay $1,500 for something that only costs $200 in the dentist office. I REFUSE. It's not happening. So I set up the next cleaning 6 months out, and we will be brushing and flossing big time between now and then. And maybe we can get Carter to establish some sort of rapport with the dentist at the cleaning that will allow him to be okay with that shot.
In the meantime, the punishment has been dealt. Every single toy in Carter's room has been "thrown away". They are actually out in the shed. But what he doesn't know....... I handed him the trash bags and made him dump all the toys in the bags. Let me tell you, he was NOT a happy kid. I wasn't a happy mom either.
In hindsight, the second those x-rays were done and revealed the massive work that needed to be done, I should have just jumped all over the out-patient option. I have pretty much paid that much with each individual appointment and failed appointment. I guess I would rather just go in one time, put him under (though that does scare me), and have it done and over with. Would have saved me a lot of missed time at work, even more ass-chewings for Carter, pulling my own hair out, trying to figure out bribes, and then dealing out the punishments when he didn't hold up his end of the deal.
Parenting SUCKS.
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