Grind

Some things about Prader-Willi can grind you down. Sometimes it can be one little thing. Something you thought was sorted but turns out not to be.

Popping its nasty little head up over the horizon like a mangy meerkat this week was something grinding. In both senses of the word. 

We went to a new dentist, and she chatted away to my daughter, keeping her engaged, and telling her how well she’d been cleaning her teeth. All good.

But of course, I hadn’t warned our friendly tooth mechanic not to mention the g-word. ‘“There might be evidence of a little grinding, and we just need to keep an eye on it,” she said.

A klaxon sounded in my head. You see, my daughter is quite obsessed with this subject. She used to grind her baby teeth noisily and constantly, until the top set were worn right down (see picture).

Now she's older, she's got a nice set of pearly whites. When the adult teeth came through, she managed, as suddenly as she started, to stop mashing those jaws together. Gone was the clacking and grinding. I’d like to say it was more peaceful, but my girl managed to replace the actual grinding with talking, endessly, about how happy she was that she’d stopped doing it. Which was almost as annoying.

So then it came.  A wave.  In the corner of the examining room, where my daughter sat, as she waited for me to complete the ritual humiliation of being told to floss more.  Her shoulders shook and she sobbed, much to the concern of the dentist and her nurse. I got up and hugged my stricken girl until it passed.

“I don’t grind my teeth anymore,” she muttered, still sniffing. I whispered a brief explanation to the dentist, who told her that she wasn’t in trouble, her teeth weren’t going to fall out, and she was still the Number One Cleaner of Teeth In Chief.

So the crisis was averted. At least I thought it was. And then my non-clacking, non-grinding, toothsome daughter spent the next three days asking me if I was happy she doesn’t grind her teeth like she used to. Over and over again.

What’s that noise? What is it? Oh yes, that would be me. Gnashing my teeth together.

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