Going to the dentist is so nice compared to my memories of childhood. At that time it was considered normal to remove teeth on an annual basis. I have vivid memories of the smell of the gas and the injections, the drill and the feeling of sheer terror heading into the surgery. When the travelling dentist came to the school, some kids fainted with worry. I know that I had had numerous teeth removed and fillings completed by the time I was Hannah's age. Both sets of Grandparents had false teeth, which was a vivid reminder of how poor early 20th century Scottish oral hygiene practices and diet were. My mum was always giving her mum a row for giving us lollies when we saw her. She would take us for a walk and ply us with lollies.
Hannah and Ryan on the other hand are quite relaxed despite the evidence of the photograph from her trip to the dentist this week. The dentist reckons that her mouth is getting crowded. We are keen for her not to have teeth out. The last Orthodontist told us that current practice is to try to avoid removing teeth and to fix it later. So much advice. So much potential trauma. So much worry for Hannah.
Time for some humour to lighten things up from Pam Ayers
OH, I WISH I'D LOOKED AFTER MY TEETH
by
Pam Ayres
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,
And spotted the perils beneath,
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
I wish I'd been that much more willin'
When I had more tooth there than fillin'
To pass up gobstoppers,
From respect to me choppers
And to buy something else with me shillin'.
When I think of the lollies I licked,
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.
My Mother, she told me no end,
"If you got a tooth, you got a friend"
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.
Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin'
And pokin' and fussin'
Didn't seem worth the time... I could bite!
If I'd known I was paving the way,
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin's
Injections and drillin's
I'd have thrown all me sherbet away.
So I lay in the old dentist's chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine,
In these molars of mine,
"Two amalgum," he'll say, "for in there."
How I laughed at my Mother's false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath,
But now comes the reckonin'
It's me they are beckonin'
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.,
Good advice I think.
