First Trip to the Dentist!

I took Addy to the dentist for the first time in June.  Addalyn does pretty well brushing her teeth.  The one complaint I have is that she is too independent so she rarely lets me help her. 

She does her sides, tops and bottoms, front, etc so she's got the right idea, I just don't know how thorough she is :) 

I wasn't sure how Addalyn would do at the dentist.  She actually doesn't mind going to the doctor at all, so I tried to explain it in a way that she was going to a "doctor for her teeth" and explain what would happen....but you can never prep a little one with such a new and interesting experience.

Waiting Room fun :)

 I was very happy with the outcomes and I was very impressed with the experience that our dental office creates.  They have definitely put a lot of thought into how to make the first few trips "not scary" and do as much as they can to work with the child.  They had explained to me when I called to set it up that they would be prepared to do as much as she would let them, but if all they do is sit and talk with her, they won't push it at all....

To start off the experience, the dentist himself came out in the waiting room to talk to Addy and "introduce" himself to her so when she was called back it wouldn't be the first time she would see him. Then when she first went back with the hygenist, the girl talked to her for a while to try and get to know her.  At first she was a little shy...

Not so sure what to think...

But, she actually did WAY better than I expected her to.  For her "safety glasses" she got to wear cool purple shades (and purple is her favorite so that was exciting!).  They let her play with all the instruments before they used them in her mouth.  They would show her what the electric ones woudl do by demonstrating on her hand and then asking her if she wanted to try that in her mouth. 

She ended up letting the hygenist do everything - check out her teeth, clean/polish them, and even floss them :)  She was pretty good when they put the water in her mouth and then used the "suck" tool...it did take a few tries to understand what she is supposed to do.

I think by the time she was finished she was done with all of the new things, because she got very scared and sad when the actual dentist came in, even though she had met him in the waiting room.  Poor girl!  I think she had warmed up so much to the hygenist and had been allowing a lot of new experiences to happen, that she just was over the experience at that point.

All he was going to do was count her teeth but she wouldn't let him, and he didn't push it.  Apparently they had already counted them when the hygenist was working with her - they just say that is what the dentist is doing so that he has a reason to meet with them when they come for the first time...

Poor Girl--- not 'down' with the teeth counting (because that is WAY more intimidating than crazy instruments polishing your teeth, pouring water into your mouth and then sucking the water out...ha ha!!)

They did stop as soon as she started crying that hard (but I had to snap the pic because it was part of the experience!).  And then afterwards, the dentist made her a very cool "balloon face" out of a glove, so I think he earned some bonus points with her.  She also got a new tooth brush, floss, toothpaste, and a necklace!

Making her balloon :)

Putting her token in for a prize...she got this totally awesome necklace.  Ha ha.  It's a fake gold necklace and has a the dollar symbol ($) as the charm....like the ones that I think I've seen rappers wear!  She thinks it's pretty cool, it just makes me chuckle :)  P.S. Check out the cool balloon!

All done with my first trip to the dentist!  Have my balloon and bag full of my loot in hand!

Gotta love the convenience of the cameras on our phones!  I had asked the hygenists if it was okay to take pictures and if it was an unusual question, they laughed and said that almost every mom takes pictures.