Josiah's First Trip to the Dentist

Josiah is usually not one for new things, and so I was a little afraid to take him to the dentist for the first time. At our dentist, they usually do a "happy visit" where they just familiarize the child with the various instruments and procedures and then typically they will schedule another visit to do all the dental work. I wasn't sure if he would cooperate, but told him about the treasure chest of toys they had for him to pick from if he was a good patient and also read him a book about what to expect at the dentist. When he went in, he was acting a bit shy with the hygenist, but seemed OK. She asked if we would want to try for X-rays and I said we could see and we asked Josiah and he said he would. It took a little bit of work, but they got a full range of X-rays and the good news is there are NO cavities! Yeah! Thankfully, his teeth have more spaces between them right now and I think that helps with not getting cavities than if they were closer together.

Then much to my surprise Josiah allowed his teeth to be cleaned as well! She showed him "Mr. Sucky Straw" which he was scared to put in his mouth, but he was allowed to suck up water in a cup to see how it worked. She also had this fun game where she would say, "I see a kitty cat sugar bug back there that I need to get...open wide!!" and then he would open big. She also said there was a rainbow sugar bug, a green sugar bug and a dinosaur. Josiah was very concerned that she get all the various bugs out of his mouth and I discovered later that he was scared that there were more monsters in his mouth after she was finished.

I can't remember what he was saying here, but he had something important to tell her! At the end, she had him use the straw to spit, but he wouldn't close his mouth with it in there and ended up spitting all over his bib instead. She resorted to having him spit in a cup since he was scared of the straw. Also she flossed his teeth and apparently the mint flavor "burned his tongue" and he was very concerned and started to cry really loudly. She gave him some water to drink and tried to calm him down. Then we were going to do this flouride treatment, which is basically just brushing his teeth with the flouride toothpaste and then him spitting it out, but by that stage he was too worked up and wanted to leave. The dentist came in and tried to look at his teeth visually, but he was too upset and crying, so he was OK with just looking at the X-rays, which were great! Overall, I was SO proud of how cooperative he was and how much we got accomplished on the first visit! He got to pick THREE prizes from the treasure box for being so brave and good. It was a treat to watch the whole thing and I felt so sorry for him afterward when he was crying. He told me later and is still "worried" that there might be monsters in his teeth. I told him that was all for pretend and there really wasn't monsters, and so I think he gets that now, but we shall see if it comes up again.