Lucie Goes to the Dentist

January 22, 2009

I've heard some horror stories about the teeth problems some Vietnamese kids adopted from orphanages have had, so I wanted to get Lucie checked out and started out with the proper care. Lucie's dentist has a really cool office - it's painted with a jungle theme and there's a video that shows a dentist cleaning a monkey's teeth. Lucie loved it. And she didn't mind the dentist so much until he wanted to look into her mouth, and then it was a totally different story. Lucie now has 9 teeth - the four upper and lower front teeth, and one molar in the back. Her 7th tooth came out Christmas day. The 8th tooth started erupting a couple of weeks ago and is still coming out. I did not even know the molar in the back had erupted because Lucie won't let me look in her mouth. She also has at least a couple of other molars that are just under the skin and look like they will be popping out at any time. Whew. The kid's mouth must really be hurting her. It stays red and swollen most of the time. The dentist says everything looks really good, and that we should be brushing and flossing Lucie's teeth every day. Good luck with that, huh?