Jeremy took Edda to the dentist today. We’ve been doing a poor job keeping her teeth clean. The dentist recommended that we bring her back every three months instead of every six months for a cleaning. It did take three people to clean Edda’s teeth at the dentist, 2 to hold her steady and 1 for the cleaning. I think we are going to try a team approach to Edda’s teeth – at least 2 people at a time to do an adequate brushing and flossing.
As it turned out, as I was headed to clinical today, I heard a story on NPR about how hard it is to find dentists willing to do dental work on special needs patients – and the patient they had on the story had Rett Syndrome. Here’s the story:
I can not thank our pediatric dentist enough. She looks out for Edda’s teeth, always taking extra time, never charging extra fees. She’s careful and thorough with Edda’s cleaning even though Edda is flailing and squirming. She processed all the Medicaid paperwork for us for Edda’s oral surgery, even though she’s not a regular Medicaid provider (which I know must be a mess because it’s a coordination between her, the oral surgeon and the hospital). He office is always on time, prompt with return phone calls and she always wanting to help. Sometimes, when Edda is really beside herself with unexplained sorrows, she’ll squeeze us in the same day to check if anything seems wrong with her teeth which might be causing her pain. She even tells me where to buy the best pistachios.