Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The House of Pearly Whites

It all started the other day when I went looking for some medicine for Mini-Husband. I pulled out that create that could double as a pharmacy all by itself, when I found a thing of dental floss that some American must have left with us at some point. Why an American, you ask? Well, let's just say that my very British husband likes to boast how he hasn't been to the dentist in over twenty years and "his teeth are just fine!" Years of this boasting has lead me to believe there may be a slight touch of dental apathy in the UK. (And well, ok, the floss was also marked from CVS, but I digress...)

I casually left the floss on the table and within seconds, the three largest tribe members wanted to know all about this fascinating stuff. "How do you use it?" "How much do I need?" "You mean you put it between your teeth?" "Can we compost this or do I need to put it in the trash?" Ah, there's nothing like the joy of a good group floss in the dining room on a rainy afternoon. There we were, the four of us, happily flossing away. Me, breaking off tartar left, right, and center, while the boys figured out how to fleck each other with whatever was recently between their teeth.

Once I finally was able to snatch the dental floss away from them, all three of them decided that brushing their teeth was now something that had to happen every 15 minutes: after you eat, before you clean up your room, after you sneeze, after you fais bizous, after your mother tells you to stop picking up your baby sister, and right before it's time to go to bed. We've gone through two tubes of toothpaste in 5 days.

Timely all this brushing and  flossing around here since the cavity that The Princess had filled last year has come back to haunt her. Saturday morning she headed off to the dentist to refill it and had confirmation that there's another little lovely growing on another tooth.

"Oh, sweetie, I hate to think it but you might end up having teeth like me, " I told her.

"Well, maybe," she replied," but since Daddy's never been to the dentist I might actually have teeth like him."

And so we shall know for sure bright and early this coming Saturday. The Princess is getting the newest cavity filled at 10 am and Hubster's first dental appointment in over 20 years, the first since we've been married, the first since he's had children, the first in this CENTURY, will immediately follow.

I don't know who's more excited about this, me or him.

4 comments:

Diane said...

Curtis must be british.

RHB said...

Yikes, hope it won't be too hard for him. Good that all your kids are into dental hygiene though. :)

hubster dave said...

i clean my teeth twice a day, and have done for living memory. not using floss and not going to the dentist does not equate to bad dental hygiene - the fact that I look after my teeth suggests a dental visit has not been necessary for TWO DECADES !!!
sometimes you americans need to get your heads out of your arses... try looking around... you are the only country i know of that FLOSSES all the frigging time.

god save the queen.

Kirsten said...

Could you give us a report on the trip to the dentist, and somehow tie it in with how the floss-obsessed Americans and their lovely teeth didn't get past the second round either, but at least didn't get scored on FOUR times on the way out? :)