Dentist

So Morgan has a dentist appointment. I am pretty sure that her appointments with this dentist are always on the worst day/time possible. It doesn't matter how good the day looks when they are scheduled, anything that can happen to make it a bad day will happen and generally without much warning. So, since we cancelled the last appointment due to Morgan's emergency room adventure, I decide that we must keep this one. Of course, I totally forget about the appointment until 45 minutes before it starts. UGH...rush, rush, rush, rush...we hurry to get ready and rush out the door. Morgan is more concerned about how much school she could possibly miss on the whopping SECOND week of school than about anything else, so it is difficult to get her to concentrate on getting dressed, making sure her teeth are brushed, etc.

Second day of medical craziness...the dental hygenist determines that Morgan has a defect in her back teeth where she has a pinhole in all of them. Unfortunately, these are her adult teeth. Obviously, she did not get her mother's teeth. I seem to have trouble with ovaries, a uterus, kidneys, ureters, and a bladder, but my teeth ROCK. ANyway, the hygenist can't just say that she has something wrong, she has to call it a "birth defect." I think she was trying to make the point that Morgan couldn't have prevented it by brushing more or flossing more. I think she was trying to make sure that Morgan understood this. However, the term "birth defect" is a little harsh. Morgan is immediately thinking about real birth defects that she has helped raise money for with walk-a-thons, fund raisers, etc. She is obviously upset, and I just want to get out of there. So, we also get flouride on this visit. The hygenist discusses how bottled water prevents so many people from getting flouride these days (I later found out that our county doesn't even have flouride in the regular water). So, Morgan is to brush this flouride stuff on every night. Lovely, I really needed something else to remember. Great. Love it.

The dentist comes in for his 2 minute appearance, and Morgan tells him that she wants to do something about her front tooth. Last year, he told her that he could "fix" the discolored spot on her tooth "when it bothered her." Amazingly enough, Morgan actually discussed this with him without involving me. I love it when she shows signs of maturity. So he tells her that he will remove the discolored part and will put a filling in its place that will match her tooth color. At some point, she will have to have it replaced (probably in her 30s - man that freaks me out thinking about her in her 30s). So, we make an appointment for the 20th when I am already going for my cleaning. They will do the front tooth AND fix the "birth defect."

We get in the car, and Morgan starts crying about her birth defect. I try to explain that I think it is a poor choice of words and that I thought she was just trying to let her know that it wasn't something that was caused but instead it was just how the tooth was made. I told her that I was just missing one of my teeth. It just never came in. She then starts going through every member of the family and asking what their defect is. As I rapidly change the conversation, she realizes that we are almost to school. Can't she stay home? No, you have to go to school.

As the day goes on, I keep thinking about why we can't have the medical test until the specialist orders it. Even though my career has always been in healthcare, I am constantly amazed at the state of the industry.