silver4's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ves!!? I think some parents don't like me, because I am not on their side. I had a little boy in for a cleaning yesterday, and his teeth were so dirty with actual dark, black calculus, I had to basically do the same type of cleaning I would do on more negligent adults or even an attitudy teenager who doesn't like to hear the dentist lecture. When it comes to little kids, I get pissed at the parents. Yes, the parents tell their children to brush their teeth, but are they always supervising? Are they checking how well it is done? Or do they just think "oh, we will go to the dentist one day and they will clean this up"? When it is a teenager, I blame the teen. Adults, I blame adults. Kids? Seven year olds who really don't know any better?? Blame falls on the parents or guardians. YOU need to watch that kid brush their teeth. YOU need to make sure it is done. The kid has cavities everywhere now? You are scolding them about eating candies and drinking sodas? Oh, really? Who is buying that stuff for the kids?? Who brings it into the household? Yes, maybe the kid gets an allowance or something and maybe somehow is able to purchase an abundance of crap, but chances are, the parents had a large role in this. My point is, this kid had a lot of hard crap on his teeth, toothbrush would not remove. Our special brush wouldn't remove. I had to use the stronger instruments that I generally don't pick up for people under at least 14. And his condition was worse than I get on some teens. So I told mom, "hey, he has a bunch of calculus on his teeth. This is way more than should be on a kid his age. You need to be there when he is brushing, because he isn't getting this stuff off of his teeth before it becomes hard." It was actually UNDERNEATH the gums around his baby teeth, black stone pebbles of calculus. White or yellow, that is common. On a single digit-aged child, I have never removed black calculus. I am telling mom. I tell the kid you need to pay attention here and there, try harder here and there. But mom, I say hey this is bad and he's going to have problems if YOU don't supervise him when he brushes. What does mom say? Looks at her son. "See? What did I tell you? You need to brush!" Looks at me. "TELL HIM what calculus is, explain it to him." I look at mom. Nope. That's not my point. I tell little man to keep brushing, and I tell mom "no, it isn't his doing. He is brushing, YOU need to make sure he is doing it right and go back in there after him." She shuts up. Yet she thanked me and her son was bubbly like a nice little kid, and he smiled and waved and can't wait to see me to get his fillings done. Mom didn't like that I lectured her. I didn't like that her kid had black calculus at age eight. Even? The parents always want me to be the bad guy and tell their kids that they need to brush better and they are doing everything wrong. How often do I see these kids? Yes, I tell them my whole spiel, but ultimately it's the parents who get my lecture. I'm not on your side, because you need to take care of your kid. And often these are the same parents whose own teeth look like crap. Hard to get through to them in the first place. Maybe I'm a bitch. I will teach the kids how to care for their teeth, but I'm not there at home with them to enforce it. Anyways. On to another day. 7:37 a.m. - 2014-08-07 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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