Sixteen-month-old Bennett Tucker sees the dentist seven days a week, and seems to enjoy it. Her mother is Dr. Brandi Prather, the only pediatric dentist in Pulaski County. Every work day Bennett waddles around her mother’s office, smiling and waving with an upside down hand. She hitchhikes, catching rides with her uncle Trae Prather, a technician; with her grandmother JoAnn Prather, the office manager; and with everyone else who works there.
“She’s the office mascot,” says Brandi.
Bennett acts as an ambassador of calm, making her rounds from patient to patient. Every day the staff breaks for lunch. Bennett breaks for a nap upstairs.
One Thursday while Bennett was upstairs, a car horn started blowing, “Whose car alarm is that?” Trae said. Before anyone responded, it stopped. Masked faces tipped back toward the work of tooth cleaning. It started again. “Beep! Beep! Beep!”
“Whose car is that?” Trae said again.
It stopped.
It started. “Beep! Beep! Beep!”
Trae finally identified the noise-making vehicle. ”That’s mom’s van!”
Bennett was upstairs playing with her grandmother’s car keys.
