$20 a tooth?! I'm gonna need a loan to cover my daughter's mouth!

In just a few years my sweet little baby is going to start losing teeth and the tooth fairy is going to have to lay off the nighttime wine so she is coherent enough to stumble into the bedroom and exchange the tooth for some money.

The big question is:  how much money are we talking about?

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I remember whenever I lost a tooth, I’d slip it under my pillow and squeeze my eyes shut, dreaming about all the candy I would be able to buy the next day once the Tooth Fairy made her/his/its? visit. My parents had told me there would be money under the pillow by the morning, but our definition of “money” must have been different, because I went to bed dreaming of millions and woke up to a scattering of quarters or, if I was really lucky, a dollar bill.

So I was delighted to see this Yahoo! Answers page about Continue reading »

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Not all candy is created equal.  Duh.  Baby Ruth is way better than Snickers or Milky Way and those little sticks from Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip (forget the sugar powder) are awesome.  But that’s not what dentists care about.  In fact, Dr. Douglas Young, professor of dental practice at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry rates his candy based on the damage it can do to your teeth.  Now, normally, I wouldn’t pay attention to this sort of thing, but since taking kids to the dentist is about as much fun as going myself, I thought this might be some good advice to keep in mind.
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This just in from a group of British researchers: decaying baby teeth may not be worth filling. Finally, a group of experts who supports the “Why bother, they’re just going to fall out anyway” defense.

But seriously, folks … as reported in this BBC News piece, researchers at Manchester University recently collected data from 50 dentists and found that they take vastly different approaches to handling cavity-ridden baby teeth. Some fill them, some extract them and some do nothing at all. Regardless of the course of action, the presence of decaying baby teeth did not necessarily appear to lead to problematic adult teeth. For obvious reasons, then, most parents may prefer to avoid filling or pulling their children’s baby teeth unless the kids are experiencing extreme pain and discomfort because of them.

Which relates back to the “Why bother, they’re just going to fall out anyway” approach, one that not only makes sense from a practical perspective, but from an economical one, too. Why pay for all those procedures when the Tooth Fairy’s just going to collect those suckers in a few days/weeks/months/years? But hold the phone for  a second…

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