The Dentist

The boys had their first dentist appointment today. Charlie has been apprehensive about it since we first mentioned it.. but he's that way about EVERYTHING. I picked a pediatric dentist here in town from a list of recommendations from our pediatrician. I'm glad that I did. Several of my friends are just taking their kids to their own dentist, but I'm never that impressed with mine anyway... this place was so geared towards kids.. it was AWESOME!

The front waiting room is completely covered with an underwater wall mural & one wall is totally taken up by a gigantic saltwater fish tank. It had great comfy couches w/ a huge train table as the coffee table - charlie made a beeline for that. "Cars" was playing on the TV, there were tons of books & some other fun toys. There's a small arch to a second play room (and an entry to a big yellow submarine that the kids can see into the waiting room though a big bubble window). There's also a place to climb up and play video games in the second smaller play room (That's where Greg & the boys eventually settled down).

The actual exam room was a huge open room with windows (and the fish tank wall on the one side). There were 5 or 6 flat dental chairs with TVs above. Jack LOVED putting on his own headphones. Mr. Anxiety wouldn't let them do X-rays. And refused the 'tickle' toothbrush, & would only tolerate his fluoride application w/ a normal toothbrush (after protesting several times because it wasn't his Nemo or Shrek toothbrush from home). He nearly had a heart-attach and threw the hygienist, Greg, & Me off of him when she offered him the white saliva sucker--- have I ever mentioned his irrational fear of hand-dryers in public restrooms?--- She had to swap the fluoride foam off of his teeth with gauze. Next time, Jack will get his teeth cleaned first.

Jack was a good champ. He's a little more easy going about new experiences. He laid on his chair patiently watching Cars while she cleaned his teeth & applied the fluoride. He even tried to talk to her a couple of times. He's a chatty little guy. We decided to have Dr. Chamberlain check Jack's teeth first which was a good plan for Charlie. He let the dentist get a good look at all of his teeth & count them. They look good.

Charlie was not happy about the dentist looking at his teeth. But he got through it. He begged the dentist not to put a mask on & to not use the 'hook' in his mouth (which he'd used to count Jack's teeth with). He also wore sunglasses that they had on hand because of the bright light. Charlie just has one little dark stain on the second to last tooth in the bottom left of his mouth. They will just keep an eye on it. Their next appointment is October 25th.

Because they were good for the dentist, he gave them each a gold coin that they got to use in giant gumball machines full of little toys. They each picked a tiny plastic ninja.

The appointments went really quickly. I think we were only there for 30 minutes. And thank heavens for insurance--- $108/each is what the statement said! Is Greg sure he doesn't want to go to dental school?