Oliver still hates the dentist, but he loves her waiting room with its shelves full of toys, books and puzzles, a fish tank and a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard. After screaming and writhing through his entire cleaning, I tried making it up to him by hanging around for a bit after the appointment just so he could play in the waiting room.
For the high-stress situation that a simple teeth cleaning turned into, the staff was wonderful. The hygienist chatted it up with Oliver and even helped him do the puzzle he'd brought from the waiting room. She distracted him with more toys and let him look at her computer as she simultaneously explained that she was going to take a picture of his teeth and then he'd get to see it on her computer. Since Oliver had had a blast taking pictures with my camera a few weeks ago, I tried playing up this event, but he wasn't fooled. Even though he got to sit on my lap in the chair, he was not going to open his mouth and hold a piece of film between his teeth and sit still enough for a usable x-ray. At least I had gotten him to sit on my lap since a few minutes earlier, he announced he was going home and confidently walked out the door and started down the hall.
The hygienist finally gave up and called in the dentist. In order for her to clean his teeth, we used the same set-up as last time when I sat on a stool across from the dentist, had Oliver straddle me and then I laid his head on the dentist's lap and she went to work cleaning his teeth as quickly as she could. She expressed worry that I wasn't comfortable, but I reminded her that I was pregnant last time I had to bend forward with Oliver's body straddled across my stomach!
Unfortunately, the staining that had prompted me to take Oliver to the dentist six months ago had come back. But it was all easily removed with the high-powered tooth brush. (I know I have one dentist among my readers...I laugh wondering what she thinks of my non-technical descriptions of our visit to the dentist.) Explaining that his enamel is probably just more susceptible to staining, she recommended we brush his teeth three times a day, instead of two. And floss too. She handed us some samples of some dinosaur-shaped flossers and Oliver, over the trauma of his teeth-cleaning, scampered out to waiting room.
With 16 teeth, he's four shy before we can call teething done with. I hear those "two-year molars" (called so because they come in between 24 and 33 months) are the worst. After some long weeks of difficult behavior - in hindsight, mostly due to teething, but also a few ear infections and cases of pink eye thrown in there - we've experienced a week of the best mood we've seen Oliver in in awhile. It's like being in the eye of a storm.
Kiera, Matteo, Oliver and Soren
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Hey... that dentist is me... or at least I think it is? :) Good work taking him even though he doesn't like it - most parents just stop going if their kids have a rough time and that makes it even worse. You're doing the right thing showing him there's really nothing to be afraid of! I'm actually surprised they tried to take xrays. There's no way I would take xrays on a kid that didn't enjoy their visit the time before. I'd rather get them used to the cleaning/exam part and actually liking the visit before trying something that tough. To make you feel better, I have kids that are 5-6 that still can't do xrays, they're hard!
ReplyDeleteI was referring to you Jodi! It's awkward writing about a topic when I know there are professionals in that area who can say it much better.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they tried taking the x-ray because I was okay with it even if Oliver wasn't. I knew it wasn't going to hurt him and wanted to give it an honest shot before deciding it'd be best to just try again next time. Oliver's also the kind of kid who's screamed through every doctor's appointment, so I think we're a long way from him actually liking a visit.