Be careful when you make decision

I know a lot of parents think that the doctors' words are rules, and we play by it, especially when it is about our kids.

But now, I want to tell everyone, especially those who have kids--think and do research hard before listening. So if you happen to drop by my post, do this, please, for the sake of your kids.

Today is a big day for my family and my Yaya. I haven't had any courage to write down what we have been through with her front teeth, and even now, I will not talk too much about the details--it broke my heart into pieces. I wish I could go back and not listen to the dentists.

Yaya's first dental check-up at her age of three was done in Evanston. After cleaning, my dentist told me that there was a tiny white spot behind her two front teeth, and she suggested that maybe we need to see a pediatric dentist to put a filling in. It was not cavity yet, but.. I listened, which I should not have. Of course the pediatric dentist said we should do the filling and we did.

Her teeth stayed healthy afterwards and we kept doing routine brushing, flossing, and half-a-year cleaning. So in June, 2006, after we moved, I took her to a new dentist close to our new place for cleaning. The evil guy, please let me call him that, because I hate him just so much that if I could, I would have killed him. He insisted Yaya needed another filling because according to him, the original one was not there anymore. I listened as I always did. But he said he needed to make the opening bigger in order to do the filling. I did not even doubt about anything he said, but I did ask over three times what kind of special care we need to take to avoid the filling falling off again. His answer was "no, you don't need to be gentle, do the usual brushing, flossing and it will not fall out."

Then in the next 6 months, Yaya's gum had 3 times of infection. Before the end of year 2006, Lei got a mirror from store and we realized, that this evil bastard, his filling was not there at all. Since then, he refused to answer any of my questions "do you think the infection is related to the loss of the filling?" "what should we do after the treatment of the infection?" Instead, he forced us to make another appointment one week later to do the due cleaning-up for Yaya.

OK, the end of the story, it turned out that the infection due to the loss of the filling and the big opening the bastard made was so bad that two front teeth of Yaya's were having severe infection of neves inside the teeth(pulp). And our little girl went through a root canal today. Any friend heard me saying "root canal" yelled "Oh, no, not for a kid" It was a terribly scare process and even adults find it unbearable. Of course, we went to other dentists recommended by other parents for all of these.

What I want to say, is,

1. Don't listen to any dentist just because he says you kid needs to be treated. Do some online research and use your common sense to make decision. In our case, the more I read and talk with people, the more I realize how common Yaya's initial problem was. Growing up in China and our own experience tell me that It might turns out to be nothing if we ignore the dentist and do a good job with the teeth brushing.

2. Ask local parents for referals to doctors when moving to a new place, expecially surburbs. Having found all the doctors that we chose randomly being fantastic in Evanston made us believe that all doctors are as good, which is not true at all. After our incidents with the bastard, we found out online that a few parents had complained about this guy "threating my 10-yr-old son" "not answering questions". If we knew, we would never put our baby to such an evil.

Now that everything could not be undone, I only hope everything will work out fine for my Yaya. So, please, if you happen to believe in any kind of religion, please pray for my little girl. We really appreciate your kindness.