Right before Thanksgiving Phoenix started complaining about something hurting in his mouth. Like I do all his ailments I told him he would be fine & moved on. But after a few days he started complaining again & this time he mentioned it was his tooth. My husband who has seen his fair share of tooth issues immediately recognized in his son the same kind of pain he suffers from.

After a few days of using baby Orajel we realized we had a much bigger problem on our hand & we made an appointment with our dentist. It was a heart wrenching 2 days as we waited to get him in to see the doctor. I fully expected that he had a cavity & went in prepared for the news. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the number of cavities that my 4 year old had. Are you ready for this?

8.

8

8

8

EIGHT.

My son who’s teeth have only been in his mouth for like a day has 8 cavities. When they told me I fell off my chair. There were smelling salts involved in order to bring me back. The only comfort I took at that dentist appointment was that genetics do play a part in oral health & after reading a recent article in Parenting Magazine it said that tooth decay is considered a communicable disease. Children of parents who have a lot of cavities are more likely to have tooth decay as well. Remember the aforementioned husband? I’m a sucker for a cute smile, a tear or something clever & this gets Phoenix just about anything he wants at any time. I also struggle a lot getting him to eat so in order to just get him to eat something I’ll let him eat cereal for all meals. And now we have 8 cavities.

Please really try not to judge me too harshly. As parents sometimes things just slip through the cracks. Since that awful dentist appointment I’ve severely cut down on his sugar intake & frankly scared it all out of him, to the point where he doesn’t even like to indulge in the occasional cookie or lollipop.

So when The Motherhood contacted me about working with Listerine & joining their 21-day challenge I jumped at the chance. I’m really good about brushing his teeth everyday but did you know that brushing alone misses 75% of your mouth? Even with brushing twice a day you are still missing a large part of your mouth, allowing germs to grow.

Now I am faced with the daunting challenge of getting my our oral care back on track. The Listerine 21 day challenge is the perfect vehicle to facilitate this. For every person who signs up for the challenge the Listerine Brand will make a contribution to help Smile Across America program toward their goal of connecting 210,000 children with needed oral health services in 2013.

If you are interested in participating in this 21-day challenge make sure to sign up for it at the Listerine Facebook page.

Disclosure: I received products from Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products Division and The Motherhood as part of my participation in the LISTERINE 21-DAY CHALLENGE. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.