Another tooth, another dollar.

Yes, in an action-packed post I can divulge the breathtaking news that Climber lost his sixth baby tooth yesterday ( Fixit tells me he came out of the bedroom in tears last night because although he was glad to give the tooth fairy her due and get the reward, he was feeling really sad to part with such a fine-looking tooth.) Coinci-dentally [see what I did there, yep one lame pun and I think I'm a legend] the boys had their check-up at the dentist on the same day, at which we were informed that Climber has grown all four of his six-year-old molars (that's the first time I'd heard of such things, live and learn) and my lovely dentist recommended fissure sealing for them at $42 a pop. It's the buzzword in childhood dentistry, a bit like anti-decay insurance. All the kids are doing it, and who am I not to protect my beloveds against the trauma of fillings?

Six months ago when we took the boys to their first ever appointment, Cherub needed me up with him in the dentist's chair. Yesterday he remembered this and put it down to his being 3 at the time. Now that he's 4, he told me, he was going to sit in it by himself, he didn't need to sit on my knee. Clearly being 4 makes all the difference. However, he tells me next time he doesn't want to wear the glasses. I don't know why. He looked quite cool in them.

Say "Aaaaaaah"

Fixit's mother is deeply sympathetic to a teething baby. She tells her grandchildren that teeth give you grief. "They're trouble when you get them and they're trouble when you lose them."

I've just been to the dentist for the first time in FOUR YEARS.

In theory I would prefer not to leave it quite so long between visits, based on the knowledge that regular appointments greatly reduce the likelihood of Highly Traumatic Treatments (and highly traumatic bills for those treatments). But pregnancy and babies hijack my good intentions. Not to mention my calcium levels if the post-Climber dental visit was anything to go by (to wit: Root Canal. Ouch). But then, I breast-fed Climber for much longer than the Cherub who was a self-weaner and I may never really get over that rejection Cherub. Just so you know what kind of recriminations are heading your way when you get older.

Anyway, you could argue that Cherub hasn't been a baby for quite a while now, so I could conceivably have gone to the dentist at least a year ago, but after all that root-canal distress I had realised something. Which was that I did not like my dentist. And so this meant that not only was I uncomfortable - on a purely emotional level, I might add, she is actually a highly skilled operator with every new-fangled gleaming bit of equipment you could want - in the chair, I also really resented paying out what felt like an extortionately high percentage of our income to her.

Obviously the thing to do was to find a new dentist, but it's veeeeery easy to drag your feet on this sort of chore because you know at the end of it you will be getting drilling in your head and a large amount removed from your bank balance. But I asked around for recommendations. Here's the thing. People actually don't really give glowing recommendations for their dentists. Even people who have good dentists. Based mostly on the fact that none of us really like going, which colours your whole attitude to the professionals in question and must be a bit of a bummer on a personal level for them, don't you think? I reckon they must get much less of the "oh you must try my chiropractor he's a genius" type affirmations, however well they do their job. Poor old dentists.

But eventually one of my friends did speak really glowingly of her dentist. Not expensive, nice person, kiddie-checkups for free and she really liked him. And someone else we knew also saw him and absolutely concurred.

So I went and saw my new dentist with doom in my heart because it was FOUR YEARS since my last visit. His 'chambers' were poky little rooms, the mags were all at least a year out of date, they hand-wrote their accounts and still had the non-electronic credit card imprinting machine. No wasting my money on expensive overheads here. BUT!! He made me laugh during my check-up, and he explained stuff properly and didn't patronise me.

And best of all he told me my teeth were in pretty good shape! The bottom teeth are a.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y fine and I've only 3 very small spots to be fixed up top. *leaps into the air and clicks heels together* So as far as I'm concerned he's welcome to my hard-earned and not only will I be taking the kids there for their first ever check-ups, I also Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good I Will Book In Every 6 Months for a Check-up!