time for teeth

on monday lily and topher had their first ever dentist appointment. this was brought on by our doctor's visit last week. i've been meaning to send the kids to the dentist for a very very long time now. some books that you read say that kids should go to the dentist as soon as their first teeth arrive. other books say 18 months, and others say later than that. lily is 4 and i really have wanted to take her to the dentist before monday. it just never happened. the road to cavities is paved with sugar and good intentions...

so my pediatrician recommended Pediatric Dental Specialists, P.C. they are located at Greenfield and Guadalupe. their phone number is 480-558-0777 and their website is www.chewchew.net (clever). they actually have a whole train theme going on at their office and it is very nice (you can see a giant train in the wall behind lily in the top pic). the kids enjoyed being in the dentist's office and felt like it was a superfun place to be. it also helped that there is a playground right outside of the office. you can see it from most of the dentist's chairs that the kids sit in to get their teeth checked out. it was great for me cause i kept telling lily and topher they could play there after our visit.

everyone who works at this office (or everyone i encountered) was very very nice and really great with my kids. they explained what everything was so that nothing would catch the kids off guard or cause them to be scared. even when they put on their little rubber gloves, they let the kids feel them: "these are really soft, see?". really great! topher was just fine with everything until they actually tried to clean his teeth. you'd think the kid has never seen a toothbrush before. he even has a spinning electric toothbrush that he loves, but the cleaning tool that they had was not ok with him. after me getting into the chair with him, and lots of bribes, we had no luck getting his teeth cleaned.

we looked over at lily and she was in the middle of getting her teeth cleaned. she was SO GREAT! she was just laying still in the chair, with a pair of sunglasses on (that they provide to protect the kids' eyes. so cute!), mouth wide open, enjoying getting her teeth cleaned. she even did great when they took an x-ray of her mouth. when topher saw his brave big sister he asked: "when's my turn?" so we went back to his chair and he sat in it upside down, which the dental hygienist did not mind at all, and he let her clean his teeth, and paint some flouride on to boot. lily is the best Judas Cow in the world. if you need to take your apprehensive child to the dentist, you can borrow lily for a few hours so she can show your kid there is nothing to be afraid of!

the night before we went, we read a book that we have which is called: "Just Going to the Dentist." it's a Little Critter book. very cute. i don't know if it helped get the kids to feel more comfortable at the dentist or not (it probably didn't help topher all that much) but it was nice to prep the kids for something they had never experienced before. if you need to borrow my book- you can do that too :)

so that's it. we actually had a really really great time at our first dentist visit. i was very happy to hear that they usually recommend kids to come in for their first appointment when they are 3 (only a year behind with lils!). and i was happiest when they told me neither of the kids had cavities! yeah!!!!!!