Dentist
June 12th, 2008 by kitI was more nervous than Christopher was by the time we showed up to the dentist. He was pretty excited, all in all, though he did get a little choked up at the thought of having to go back by himself. Luckily that never came to pass.
The waiting room had a few toys in it: lego tables, bead wire toys, that sort of thing. Christopher was more interested in the Cartoon Network programs playing on the television, despite my trying to distract him with a Ranger Rick, though I didn’t make a big deal of it. He was calm, smiling, and we were sitting cozily together waiting for a little while. I can’t beat calm and smiling.
But the entire office was calm and smiling. The front office staff was pleasant. The hygenist was pleasant. Every kid who came in was happy to be there.
When we were called back, I explained that Christopher had a bit of a dental trust issue due to some recent bad experiences, and they were totally cool. They would like us to work up to being able to send C back by himself, but they realize that trust is a process that takes time.
There was a friendly older gentleman standing back in the treatment area when C and I arrived. I thought that he was a guardian grandfather or something, but no. It turns out he was the dentist. He gave me a firm handshake, introduced himself, and spoke to Christopher by name. He was really on the ball.
He may be the coolest dentist I’ve ever met, because, let’s face it, Hamilton is a particularly awesome first name. And Jones is the name of my Grandfather Pierce, who was a rascal, but it’s an interesting connection all the same.
Christopher took an xray of the affected area like a champ. He had a little bit of a freakout when it came to lay back in the dental chair, but we worked through it quickly and he laid himself down. Another little panic when it came time to turn on the light — Christopher is more photophobic than we previously thought — but they handed him a pair of Batman sunglasses just like that, and all was well from that point out. Christopher opened his mouth whenever the dentist came close with his hands. He held totally still when Dr. Jones was probing with his pick. He answered when he was spoken to. He saved his questions to the end. He was perfect.
Turns out that, even though the last dentist (who was really quite good, but just not completely comfortable dealing with kids - Heidi insert, NOT to be confused with the really horrible pediatric dentist we saw two dentists ago) scraped his enamel, he didn’t do a “crosscut” to keep the filling in. Apparently he did such a good job that Dr. Jones had some trouble identifying the location of the work. Between me and the dentist, we decided that C is due to start losing teeth this next year, and as long as we maintain the kibosh on the extremely sticky candies and get C to brush after every meal, there’s no reason to try the filling again. If the spot gets sensitive or painful, then all bets are off, but as it is, we’re going to spare C the trauma.
I love this dentist! Christopher got a coupon for a free hamburger and a nifty little (chintzy) toy plane he was allowed to pick out himself, and they sent us home. A good indication of how well it went is that C wasn’t thinking about the experience right after we left. He was just looking forward to assembling his plane. That’s truly the mark of an easy dental appointment — not a second thought given to the experience.
Now to schedule the girls’ appointments.
(Heidi insert - we liked our most recent dentist and he’s great for check ups but was not comfortable doing actual dental work on the kids and warned us of this. So after that last dentist had a freak out and had to excuse himself while trying to work with Christopher last week, we decided best to find a dentist that could handle kids’ better. Nice guy, just not at all use to kids apparently. And this was NOT the really horrible, terrible dentist we fired after the way he wanted to handle Mo. Here’s hoping we have found a dentist we can all be comfortable with…)