Dentist

Eli and I had dentist appointments yesterday. It was his first ever and I can't believe how great he did.

I went first for him to see how it would all go, and he got to look at my teeth and all the "tools." The hygenist was excellent with him; it was like she knew him as well as I do and knew all the right things to do.

While she was cleaning my teeth she was talking to him the whole time and she asked him what his favorite TV show was. Without missing a beat he replies, "The Disney Channel" to which I snort and whisper, "We don't have cable." She starts laughing, and asks, "what about at his daycare?" No they don't either, none of his grandparents have cable, so I'm guessing some of the other kids in his class must talk about it? It's funny how much he's turning into a "school-age" kid and pays attention to other kids and what they think.

She got him looking at everything and then before he knew it he was up in the chair agreeing to let her polish his teeth, spray water in his mouth and put his lips around the "sweeper" to suck out the water.

I actually didn't know that they would do anything other than look at his teeth, but she did the polishing thing that they do at the end after they clean your teeth. He got to pick out the flavor of the toothpaste she used to do it, which is something they have never offered me.

He had started to hesitate on letting her put the "polisher" in his mouth and then she says put your hand out here and I'll do it on your fingernail again so you know what it will feel like. He quickly obeyed and then still wasn't sure he wanted it in his mouth, so she says, "I'll do one tooth and then you can tell me what you think." Once the first one was done, she said, "See, it feels like I'm tickling your tooth." He just nodded and she kept going.

She also suggested getting a timer so he could brush his teeth for a full two minutes, and he seems pretty excited about that. So I figure I'll get one of those this weekend and get that started before the excitement wears off. I think his favorite thing was picking out the goodies at the end. He picked a yellow power ranger toothbrush, a Bugs Bunny pencil and she found some Spiderman stickers so he got two of those, and he was a very happy boy.

On our way home at the end of the day it was so fun to listen to Eli relay his experience at the dentist to Noah. The way he explained the tools and what they do was priceless. I'm glad he had a good experience and is relaying that to Noah, so I don't think they will have a fear of the dentist, which is exactly what I want for my boys.

I'm thankful that we had that particular hygenist (who, incidently, was filling in for someone else) and that our dentist is so kind and nice and that it all went smoothly. Except for the part where he found one of my fillings to be in the beginning stages of dis-repair and it has to be removed and re-filled. But hey, it's probably about 20 years old, and there's nothing I can do to make a difference on how long a filling will last. My teeth look good though, so all my brushing and flossing is paying off.