I'm not bad about the dentist (although I hate it--the nasty tastes are the worst!), but I really feel for your son who has to have teeth taken out. I had to have four pulled (and will have to have another pulled, probably by this December, if it doesn't fall out on its own), and I can't do it under local--I HAVE to be under general anesthesia, or I can and do feel the pain of the pulling. Local anesthetic doesn't seem to work on me, as I have had problems with it before and could feel EVERYTHING when under it; I just couldn't move the area in question. It was a lot like having 'sleeping' body parts.
Oddly enough, although I do not brush too often (almost never in middle school, now roughly once a night), I have never had a cavity and have reasonably good teeth, if slightly yellow ones. I think that's mostly because of my diet; I drink a LOT of milk and eat quite a lot of broccoli and other calcium-rich foods. Maybe that might help your son out a little?
Dunemom, I currently have braces, and I find that the orthodontist is much more pleasant than the dentist once the braces are actually on and they aren't taking models of your teeth (I nearly throw up when they take the bites). The reason that the orthodontist is better is that they don't really do much that hurts (it starts hurting about an hour after visiting the dentist, but it stops by the next day, usually) and there's almost nothing that's really irritating while you're in the dentist's chair. I dislike the dentist MUCH more. Of course, I usually go torpid in the orthodontist's chair, so that might be why...
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