Alice had her first trip to the dentist last month! Her doctors have been pressuring me to take her since her 18 month check up. Finding one was a challenge. Most dentists won't see kids under 5 so you have to find a Pediatric Dentist and finding one in our area was a challenge. And because a pediatric dentist is considered a specialty, they are also outside of network with our insurance. Awesome. (Disclaimer: when we picked the dental plan, there wasn't a child involved. It might be time to pick a new plan.)We don't really know why she needed to go. They're not going to do anything in the event her teeth are out of place! And she is my child - her teeth WILL be out of place. I pray she won't have as much dental drama as I had but I know there will be some.
And she hates medical professionals so I put it off as long as I can.
But she did really good! I took her Sheep so she could have something to hold. She got a little anxious when we first went back but we had a long wait before the dentist came in so we talked about what was going to happen. I told her she was going to brush her teeth and count them. And then we could go.I also packed lots of distractions.We sat for a long time. She asked what all the noises were and I could see her anxiety lessen. Then a new family moved in next door and their little one was screaming like a banshee. I thought, "well, there goes that!" but she handled it well. She asked why the baby was sad and we talked about her being scared. I don't know how much she understood but she never got worked up.
Her dentist was fantastic and Alice did SO GOOD! She let her brush her teeth and count them. She only puckered up when she tried to put Fluoride on them. Fluoride is super yucky anyway. As soon as the dentist was done, Alice asked, "we go?".
Her teeth look great! She still has two molars left to come through - yay. But everything else looked great! We worried because brushing her teeth is a total calamity. She mostly just sucks the toothpaste off. Teeth brushing is the Dada's role and bless him, he tries! But she wants to do it all on her own so it's a miracle if they manage to get clean.
At her last 2 1/2 well baby check, the resident said we should start flossing her bottom teeth. I'm surprised my eyes didn't pop out of my head. I said, "oh, okay. I'll let her dad know!" Yep. Won't that be fun!
***I'm done with school and I was going to have May all to myself to write and clean and organize. However, some things have happened and that won't be the case. I'll write when I can, however, I can't promise it will be too often. But I'll try!
Until next time.....
2 comments:
Our pediatrician says three is when we should start going to the dentist. 18 months seems super young. Glad she did so well. Our dentist also recommends flossing for all the kids but seriously? I only floss my own teeth maybe 40% of the year. I'm sure it would be the responsible thing to do to ensure they have great teeth habits but so much work for teeth that are falling out anyway. ;)
We got to a county facility so I think they start early in hopes their patients will get there before they're in school. While we were at the dentist, the kids that moved in next to us were going to have to have TONS of work done because most of their teeth were rotted. The mom said they just moved from Hawaii and the people there said to give them juice and not milk so they're teeth were all bad. And I had to control my "say what?!" eyes. Seriously.
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