SMILE!

Cale had his first dentist appointment today.

He did AWESOME!

I was so so proud of him!

I "pumped him up" so much about going to see the dentist, that when he woke up he was pretty excited to get going.

Initially, we actually arrived at the wrong dentist.

There are 2 different dentist's offices only one building apart.

I went to the wrong one.

I sensed it was the wrong one when I walked in, but it took the receptionist 5-10 minutes to acknowledge me being there and then to tell me I had no appointment scheduled.

I was upset because I thought we'd be late to another appointment.

We showed up at 9:13a when our appointment was scheduled for 9am.

I apologized to the receptionist, but she said, "No, that's fine, you're actually early - your appointment is at 9:15a."

Awesome! Already off to a good start.

Admittedly, I wasn't that impressed with the waiting room. Sure, there were 2 TVs playing and some random toys in a plastic tub towards the end of the room, but...no colorful walls, no balloons, or sticker machines (as had been MY experience as a child going to a Pediatric dentist.)

But, I was very pleased by only having to wait between 5-10 minutes before being called back.

As soon as they called Cale's name and opened the door, he marched right in.

He didn't seem to be afraid by anything he saw, until the dental hygenist started talking to him in a 'sing-songy' voice. I could tell that she was used to children being nervous...so I could understand her trying to be 'over-the-top NON-scary'...but that, in and of itself, made Cale much more apprehensive than he would have otherwise been.

She showed him his "chair" and asked him if he wanted to sit in it.

He gave me a look that I took as, "let's get outta here" so I tried to take over.

A "matter-of-fact" voice works very well for Cale...

((ie: this is what this is. this is how this works. this is what will happen.))

....but Miss Sing-Song wanted to see if she could help him relax a bit. She took him over to some other children sitting in their chairs (they were all lined up facing TVs), and he followed her. She compared him to the other children and said that he would get a "special cleaning" like they did.

She then asked if he's like to sit in the chair like the other boys did, and he said no.

Sing Song told me that this "appointment might not happen today."

Nah, it'll happen.

I told Cale that the lady could clean Mommy's teeth first if he was nervous.

(Thankfully it didn't come to that - I had JUST finished a breakfast bar and most of it was still caught in my teeth.)

I layed down in the chair, and then put him on my lap. He agreed to let her put a bib on him. We saw that Madagascar was playing on the TV. And although it was on mute, I reminded him of when we went to the movies last summer to see Madagascar 2.

Even though we had to leave in shame after the first 1/2 hour, we were able to stay long enough to hear the song "I like to move it-move it"...

He remembered.

As I've mentioned, Cale has a fantastic memory.

We strolled down memory lane as we sang "I like to move it-move it."

That worked.

He opened his mouth for her to brush his teeth, and gave the appropriate "eehs and ahhhs" when requested.

He went on to cooperate enough to let her rinse his mouth and use the "Mr. Thirsty" straw too (not sure if that's what they STILL call it, but when I was a kid - that's how they described it).

Personally, I hated that thing - I'm still not a fan. It feels weird, like someone sucking the breath out of you...but Cale was cool with it.

He's a chill kid sometimes.

More than that though, he's inquisitive.

I've been told one more than one occasion, by strangers, that my son is "very inquisitive for his age." And he totally is.

He had to know how this 'sucky-thing' was working, and how the water was coming out of the sprayer thing without him being able to see it.

Above all else though, he LOVED the "tickle-brush" (aka: gritty plaque paste).

He let Miss Sing-Song clean ALL his teeth with it...more than once, actually.

He was fascinated by the fact that she swirled it in RED (his favorite color) stuff then put it on his teeth. She let him play with it, and he cleaned some of my teeth.

I hate that gritty feeling, but I put on a smile for him. :)

Sing Song was so impressed she kept calling out to other hygenists to look at him. She kept saying "Have you ever seen a child tolerate the 'tickle brush' so well - and then want to play with it?"

She did have to take it from him though when the dentist came over.

The dentist pointed out his problem right away.

I knew it was coming.

"Does he have a thumb-sucking problem?"

No. It's a binky problem.

I thought I'd be getting a big lecture here, but I was very pleasantly surprised to hear her say that we should keep trying to steer him from using it, and that by 4 they really like to see kids "kick the habit."

4??

WOW!! I would have never thought a dentist would say 4!

((What do you think about THAT, Grammie?!?)) ha ha.

The dentist poked in his teeth and counted them...and that was that.

He got 2 prizes from the "treasure chest" and a bagful of dentist goodies and we were done.

Easy peasy.

I'm very happy that he passed with flying colors and I didn't have to walk out of the office in shame like I did that movie theater last summer...

Of course I probably shouldn't have gone home and given him candy as a reward for being so good...but hey, I'm a sucker for that slightly buck-tooth smile. :)