Soundtrack for Dental Day

I am dentally phobic, and I am not exaggerating. I can thank my traumatic moments at Dr. Holland's office back in '65 or '67; his less-than-loving touch has left its mark and I really cannot stand going to the dentist. We do have five children, though, and that means a lot of teeth brushing, dental and ortho appointments. What's a dental phobic mom to do? Hire Dental Dad to come to the rescue. This isn't a one-sided arrangement, though. He has his own issues with the possibilities of what one could see, smell or hear in a hospital, so I am Medical Mom. I do emergency room visits, annual pediatric check ups and supervise medications. We really are the perfect team.

Today Dental Dad is home for the binge we call Dental Day. Five children, five teeth cleaning slots, several hours of dental office rotations between the waiting room study hall or the back room appointments. This means that the non-phobic portion of the family gets well acquainted with the staff. Miss Debbie the hygienist gets far too many details about our life from the younger siblings, much to the horror of the older ones, and she loves to laugh with us about it later. The great thing about Miss Debbie, though? She is a huge Bruce Hornsby fan. After hearing that we were fans, she went to a concert and she came home with this for us:


Bruce Hornsby: Intersections (1985-2005)

The guy was handing them out to everyone! A 4-CD, 53-song box set with a 23-track dvd, too. What an unexpected pleasure on Dental Day. I sure hope to see his spider fingers in concert someday.

The music is the perfect accompaniment to a gray, chilly April afternoon that is filled with school assignments, papers to grade, and an extra dose of sleepy-headedness. Bruce is great wake-up call.