The part of parenting I was least prepared for was the time, energy and money spent on teeth.

By Meg Walter

There were certain aspects of parenthood I anticipated when I began my motherhood journey over a decade ago — changing diapers, preparing chicken nuggets, reading lots of board books and so on.

There were other parts of parenting I was not quite so prepared for — like spending hours looking for a missing shoe that would be found months later wedged under the passenger seat of the car. Fielding lots of very specific opinions on chicken nugget brands. Pretending to know what Minecraft is.

But the aspect of parenthood that has taken me by complete surprise is the amount of time, money and emotional energy I spend thinking about teeth.

It hasn’t always been this way. In fact, this is a relatively recent development, and one that seemed to pop up overnight.

We went from seeing our pediatric dentist “once every six months” — which has actually been more like once every nine months since I have to reschedule each appointment 23 times — to visiting the orthodontist office pretty much every other day now that my eldest child has come of orthodontia age. And just last week, at our pediatric dentist appointment — to which we were significantly late because pulling three kids out of three different schools takes way longer than you might think — I was informed that my middle child has a cross bite and will need braces sooner than later.

I think this might be dental karma coming around to finally get me. By some genetic miracle, my kids have avoided any cavities up to this point. To absolutely no credit of mine. When the dental hygienist asked my 5-year-old if he brushes his teeth every day, he responded “Not every day” as though that was simply too big a burden to bear. And when she asked him if he flossed, he said, “What’s floss?”

So really it was only a matter of time before I had to pay my child dental issue dues.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2024/03/27/braces-teeth-children-adult-orthodontia/