Abby's First Visit to the Dentist

This may come as a surprise, but Abby had her first dentist appointment this week. After talking to my Mom friends it appears that our dentist takes a much different approach to the age of seeing a child's teeth for the first time than other dentists. Most everyone I've talked to says that their dentist has them bring their kids in for a visit as soon as the first tooth pops through and then every six month onward. Abby didn't get her first tooth until after she turned a year old and when we asked about getting her in to be seen at our next semi-annual appointment we were told that unless there was an issue she didn't need to be seen until closer to three or four years of age. We asked another time or two if that was still true and it wasn't until she'd turned three that our dentist said he'd recommend she'd be seen. And even then it was more of a "if you want her seen bring her in, otherwise it's no biggie to wait" referral.

So at three and a half years Abby went to see the dentist.

She hopped right up into the chair and proudly waited to see what was going to happen. She knew the dentist would be checking her teeth to make sure they were growing big and strong, but otherwise didn't know much. I'd thought to read her the Little Critter's Book Just Going to the Dentist the night before, but I forgot that in the book Little Critter has a cavity and gets a filling. Let's just say I quickly turned the page before Abby could see the big needle going into Little Critter's mouth. Oops!

Abby thought the paper napkin was neat. Here's she's smiling and showing off her teeth.

And here she's counting them for the hygienist.

This photo is just hilarious. After laying down Abby promptly opened her mouth as widely as possible without being asked. :-)

She thought the sunglasses were pretty cool for a bit, but soon took them off.

Doing a great job holding her mouth open while the hygienist counted and touched her teeth.

I just couldn't resist this shot. Nate's off work for the week (a much deserved vacation after his crazy project schedule) but I think his idea of vacation was sleeping in and doing work projects around the house. Little did he know I had "projects" for him as well. One being an 8:30am dentist appointment. Mwah ha ha. :-)

 

After having her teeth looked at we moved on to showing off the various instruments that would be used while cleaning her teeth. This is where she started to get a little nervous. Abby did okay with the water being squirted into her mouth but the suction stick was a little on the scary side. I touched it with my finger to let her know it was okay and so she warily touched it with her finger and then allowed it to go into her mouth. We got her to shut her mouth around the stick so she could feel the suction but she just wasn't a fan.

The hygienist was brilliant with her next idea. She squirted water onto the seat cover and then had Abby use the suction stick to suction up the water. Abby got to see exactly what the stick was doing and became interested in it then instead of leery of it. 

Abby was doing so good with the tools that we decided to try our luck at actually cleaning her teeth. One tooth got a quick clean and then we asked Abby to get back on her back so we could try to clean more of her teeth.

It was at this point with multiple things in her mouth, including the aforementioned scary suction stick, that Abby decided she was done with her cleaning. She so sweetly sat up, said "All done", and that was that.

Thankfully Abby agreed to let the Dentist take a peek in her mouth before our appointment was over. I think she was excited to have someone else count her teeth and tell her how big and strong they were. :-)

Our visit ended with picking a toy from the toy box and getting a clean teeth bill of health. No cavities, great alignment, and an overall healthy mouth. Yay!