Confessions of the Happy Pinay Mommy

The 70,000 Pediatric Dental Job

I confess that I am a mother of a monster-teeth pre-schooler. If you would see my daughter’s teeth, you would know where my guilt is actually coming from. And I know it is my fault. Although I religiously brush her teeth before going to bed, I introduced her to the love of nursing to sleep and chocolates J

So when I saw the first cavity, I rushed her to the pedia dentist who just gave me a tooth mousse to slather on my kid’s mouth. She said, chocolates can never be avoided, and that I should just follow up with brushing.

My daughter’s teeth, after months became yuckier all the more. Enter Pedia Dent #2, who was really nice. She however said that my daughter’s teeth can no longer be repaired through filling or what we call “pasta” and she has to undergo root canal. And being three years old at that time, she recommended that she be sedated during the whole process.

And although this is supposed to be routine according to her, we got scared about the thought of “putting her to sleep” just so her teeth could be nice again. I figured kids will be kids, and we do not want her having to endure that.

What got me all the more scared was the quotation that amounted to almost 12,000 Pesos if I remembered right. My goodness, it almost amounted to my Wisdom Tooth Extraction, am I that bad a mother? Am I that neglectful?

Anyway, our favorite dentist Dr. T, assured me it had nothing to do with my parenting, and Little’s nursing to sleep was to be blamed. In fact she even said, even her kid has cavities.

And there I was thinking breastmilk won’t cause cavities.

I just can’t fathom the thought of not letting a baby or a toddler for that matter nurse to sleep. And am I that nuts to wake a sleeping ball of kakulitan just to gargle or brush? I felt so guilty.

So the long and short of it was, I just vowed to be ultra vigilant about brushing. As recommended by Dr. T, she now uses Floucaril, and an anti-cavity mouthwash, and I have Dolan in the fridge just in case one of her teeth will ache.

But after a year, like a nightmare back with vengeance, one of Little’s molars was aching. Had to give her Dolan, and too bad for us, Dr. T is no longer practicing in that wonderful clinic nearest our house. Her clinic in her residence is a good two hour drive from our place so had to say goobye to her.

Anyway, we had to consult another pedia dentist. This time though, the figures were staggering. She, like our favorite pedia dent, Dr. T, also recommended the sedation, root canal, extraction, and all. The huge difference though was the price quote for the treatment. A WHOPPING P70,000.00. Goodness gracious! So does this mean that in one year’s time the damage in Little’s teeth worsened seven times further? That amount of money was like giving birth to her all over again!

I tried to compose myself and asked the pedia dent how come it came around that figure. She mentioned the anesthesiologist etc plus other fees, and the many procedures that have to be done to salvage my daughter’s pearly whites (or pearly browns for that matter). She and her assistant also assured to me that Little’s case was not even the worst that they saw, and was not definitely the worst that they are treating. Oh well.

So by now, you might have guessed what we did. I added another tooth-brushing session to our day, and fingers crossed no major toothache till all the milk teeth fall off. J We are keeping our P70k. I’m not a good mom when it comes to this, and it is OK.