Rubber Tippie

There's a whole slew of "should do's" that I've never quite mastered. I can juggle one or two at a time but when you get them all in the air, inevidably they get dropped. I had an epitame last year when I mastered the discipline of...get this...rubber tipping! My dentist was delighted and as a result I was able to significantly reduce the bleeding induced by my regular cleanings.
I can't tell you how many times I sat in the dentist's chair looking like a vampire who'd just been gorged, being gently scolded because of my refusal to pick up the darned rubber tipper and take like 20 seconds to stimulate my gums twice a day after brushing. I can't tell you how many times I went home in humiliation and self-chastisement resolving that between this cleaning and the next one, I would show them that I could do it. I'd last a week or two and then I'd be late for work or too tired at bedtime so I would skip "just this one time" and before long, it was time for that cleaning appointment again and the whole cycle would repeat.
My dentist was clever and used many different strategies to get his point across. He compared caring for my gums to being as important as working out my muscles (he knew I personal trained). He suggested multi-tasking by rubber tipping during my commute to work & back (would that even be legal now?) He showed me pictures of varying degrees of gingivitus and told me tales of my impending demise. The worst was when he said nothing and just looked at me with those sad, disappointed eyes. I felt guilty but nothing translated to long-term change.
My ah-hah moment came when my regular cleaning appointment fell on the same week as my children's did. My entire family has dental issues of one kind or another and I end up getting a lecture from my kid's dentist that I should be "hand over handing" my children to ensure that their teeth are cared for properly. I looked at her in amazement because it takes three of them to hold my son down for an examination and until recently a cleaning had to be done under full anesthesia in the hospital. Did they really expect me to wrestle my son single-handedly every day when I was struggling with  perfecting my own oral routine? Still, my son's rather disturbing behaviour at the dentist, the "now, if you were a good mom" lecture, my own impending cleaning visit with all it's implications and this rising sensation of being trapped in my own version of "Groundhog Day" literally brought me to tears.
I divised a plan right then and there. This wasn't just my problem, it was a family problem. We were going to make this a priority until it was right. I asked the dental receptionist for teeth diagrams and other pictures which I laminated and put in the bathroom. At my dental visit a couple days later, I shared my plan, asked for extra rubber-tips and asked for them to demonstrate one more time what they wanted me to do so I could instruct everyone else. Then I made a big production of gathering the family for daily family oral hygiene sessions. Strangely, my kids really liked this new "family time" game and were like the Gustapo if I got too busy and forgot to show up on cue.

"Are we going to brush our teeth together?" They would yell down the stairs, beakoning me away from the computer. Sometimes I wondered what I'd started.

Three months later when I showed up for that deaded cleaning appointment I was given rave reviews (it was kind of embarassing...like everyone clapping because you used the potty...as an adult). When I rinsed, even I noticed the absense of bleeding. I was sheepish with my dentist about only taking 5-6 years to finally get it. He laughed and said it happens that way all the time. Some patients just need longer than others and then he reassured me that I wasn't the worst case.
I've stuck with it though and even though it's a small change, I feel oddly proud of my new skill. We don't have those family oral hygiene meetings in the bathroom any more and I'm thinking we should restart them because I think the kids are getting lazy again. Isn't that human nature though? The point is that we give healthy behaviours our time and focus when we can and never give up trying to change our lazy ways. Behaviour modification, one behaviour, one day at a time.