My Boys Can get cavities

I love brushing my teeth so it was easy for me to get into the habit of brushing the boys' teeth when teeth started to arrive.

When they were around the age of about 4, we started the trips to the dentist. Initially it was to sit in the chair and have the hygienist take a quick look around, maybe use an instrument or two. At that point there wasn't anything going on with their teeth and I was delighted that the boys coped so well with the intimate experience of lying back in the chair and staying still while a strange lady poked and prodded.

So you can imagine my horror when my oldest was 5 and the dentist told me he had 7 cavities. SEVEN. I was stunned. How could that happen? My husband's insurance allowed visits every 9 months so it hadn't exactly been a long time since our last visit.

"Elaine" she said, "when my son was 5 he had 8 cavities." 

To be honest with you it never occurred to me that maybe she was a crappy dentist. She's a lovely lady and had always done a great job on my own teeth. She said it can just happen. It doesn't take much for food and sugar to do a number on baby teeth. 

We never have juice or pop in the house but we do eat the cookies and cakes we make. Obviously the brushing I was doing wasn't enough to prevent damage. Forewarned is forearmed so I ramped up the brushing and when my youngest was 5 he only had 2 cavities. Horrible but I'd seen worse hadn't I. About a year later we started using an Oral B Vitality spin brush. It's easier than using a manual brush and does a much better job. No new cavities thank goodness.

And I never thought about putting an end to the cookies and cakes....