Otherwise known as the Dentist.
Yesterday was a hallmark day. Little Miss Sunshine had her first dentist appointment. We had talked about it. We had prepared. We had even been practicing with a spin toothbrush (at the advice of my Mom) for months. She was ready for her teeth to be shiny white and clean. She was even anticipating a bag of “presents” that I told her they would give her.
The morning of she suddenly started to cry because she didn’t want to go to the dentist. The dentist was scary. I had no idea where that came from. I scooped her up and reassured her. “The dentist is a nice man, and there will be a very nice, pretty lady who will clean your teeth. It will be ok, I’ll be right there with you!” I realized the irony of trying to re-assure my child that something was going to be ok when I was quite dreading it myself. I always get good reports at the dentist. I’ve never had a cavity. I’ve never had any dental work outside of routine cleanings and braces as an adult that resulted in a perfect, pearly white smile. But, oh the scraping! Ugh. I put my best smile on and she seemed calm and ready to go.
We arrived and there had been some dental emergency (as there always seems to be) and the schedule was goofy. Instead of me sitting next to her, we were both getting our teeth cleaned at the same time. The nice, pretty lady came to take Little Miss Sunshine to her own chair and L.M.S. seemed quite grown up and ready to go on her own. Our office is open, in that we don’t have individual rooms, but dividers. You can’t see the other patients, but where the kids are, I could turn my head backwards and see her. And I could definitely hear her. She chattered away about Michigan and Ohio being cold and getting to see snow and her cousins that we have pictures of on the wall and how someday when she was older she was going to go to school in Ohio (oh really?). And then I heard, “MOMMA! IT’S A BLUE ONE!!!” The topic of discussion in the waiting room had been what color the toothbrush would be that the nice, pretty lady would use. I guess it was blue. The nice, pretty lady kept telling her, “You are doing such a good job! Are you always this good?” Made me feel good!
But then the dentist came in, to count her teeth. He’s a very nice, Asian man – a teddy bear the girls in the office call him. But he has these glasses that have like little telescopes on them. And he came over to Little Miss Sunshine’s chair wearing them. And she started to cry. “MAMA!!!!!!!” My hygenist released me and I went over and scooped her up as she buried her head in my shoulder and clung to my neck. “Take those glasses off!!” the hygenist hissed at the dentist. He sat there stunned. I don’t think he’d ever received that kind of reaction before. All the hygenists were trying really hard not to laugh – at him, they felt bad for L.M.S. He slipped the glasses off and Little Miss still wouldn’t quiet down. “Just go. Shoo! Leave!” the hygenist hissed at him again. He looked at me with a stunned look yet a slight grin and said, “We can just count them next time!” And off he was. The other hygenist came over and said, “I spit on him for you!” What?? Crazy office! Finally Little Miss settled down and showed me her clean, pearly whites and her new Dora toothbrush. She sat in a chair by me while my hygenist finished polishing my teeth.
The dentist came over to inspect my teeth, with his glasses off, and made a big show of counting my teeth – 28 in all! Little Miss sat in the corner as far away from him as she could get with her mouth tightly closed. I fear he shall forever be the “man with the scary glasses.” I have 6 months to work on convincing her they are silly glasses, not scary. Wish me luck. She rather quite enjoyed getting her teeth cleaned otherwise!
Hmmm guess I didn’t prepare you enough but it sounds like she did better than most of our kid patientsand better than some of the adult ones as well. 🙂 Did you happen to take a picture of her first dentist appointment? Just to think I spent 5 1/2 years going to the dentist office 4 days a week. Was I nuts or what? I think there are children’s book out there about going to the dentist with characters like Elmo and such. You might check at the library before the next check up.
Even though Liam had 2 teeth pulled and Elli has had a cavity, I am so thankful for our kids’ dentist office–a 25 minute drive–because they have TV’s on the ceiling. The kids are so distracted they hardly bother with what’s going on in their mouths. Addi screamed her way through her appointment–she’s not into TV yet.
Oh my. I WISH my toddler’s dentist stories were as good. About 9 months ago, he tripped on the cement driveway & chipped a tooth, so his first appointment was earlier than it otherwise would have been AND they took x-rays. I was pregnant at the time & therefore couldn’t hold him for the x-rays. Yikes! All in all though he did well I suppose. He cried the whole time, but at least kept his mouth open & didn’t bite them or anything. Also he stopped crying as soon as he realized they were really done. I’d say Little Miss Sunshine’s appointment sounds wonderful!!!
PS – I love the idea of the spin toothbrush. I’ll have to try that before the next time.
Remind me to never let LMS see a picture of me in the Optivisor I use for jewelry making. 😀
On the other hand, maybe someday she could look through the magnifiers, and see how cool stuff is through them? Probably not – she’s scarred for life. 😀
Mom, you prepared us, I just didn’t anticipate the crazy glasses!!
Jenna, tvs on the ceiling! I want to go there! Definitely sounds like it’s worth the drive!!
Bessers, that’s definitely a miserable dentist appointment for anyone, let alone a toddler! Poor guy! Definitely try the spin brush, we started out with a fun character, then when that one died graduated her to our Braun. Worked like a charm.
Cal, the optivisor thingy sounds scary to even me!! lol. We do have binoculars. I tried telling her they were like binoculars for his glasses. No go though. The poor dentist might be scarred for life too!