Dentist

Jay had his first dentist visit ever this week. He was GREAT! They brushed, flossed, polished, and counted his teeth! Then he had fluoride painted on his teeth...so cool. The fluoride spreads over your teeth by your saliva, hardens, then stays on your teeth until you brush them again. You can eat and drink immediately after the fluoride is applied. I wish they had that kinda stuff when I was a kid. And now I'm wondering why I still have to take the fluoride you swish in your mouth and then wait an hour before eating or drinking anything?

A couple of things we did to prepare for the big day...

First, we played dentist at home...taking turns checking and pretending to clean each others teeth. After awhile, anything Jay could find that resembled a hose was used as a pretend spray to wash my teeth. "Open up, Mom", he would say, and proceed with the invisible spray down...usually followed by a full spray down (pretend) from my head to my toes.

Two, Brian had an appointment on the same day. I scheduled Jaydon's appointment to start 15 minutes after Brian's appointment, so Jay could get a preview of what would be happening to him. This seemed to have the desired positive effect on the overall visit. Brian did a great job talking it up like going to the dentist was sooo cool!

Third, it helped that a few months ago we ran into Terry (my dental hygienist, who is awesome, and who I thought Jay would like as well) at the grocery store. From the moment Jay had met her there, we talked about how she was going to clean his teeth. Did I mention that I think Terry is awesome! That helped, too!

The only bump in the road, though I even hesitate to call it that, was that Jay didn't want to sit by himself in the chair while his teeth were cleaned and such, so I sat with him in my lap. Otherwise, he was great. Jay especially seemed to enjoy it when "thirsty straw" came in to suck the water out of his mouth..."give thirsty straw a kiss" is how Terry put it. Now when we pretend play dentist at home, Jay says to me, "Give thirsty straw a kiss, Mom."

I had no expectations for this visit. If Jay simply wanted to say hello and peek inside one of the rooms, that was ok with me. That he had "the works" done, therefore, simply ROCKS!