Lakes Family FUN Blog: The Dentist

A big milestone of turning 3 is a visit to the dentist. For some reason I just wasn’t excited about this milestone so I put it off…until I realized I am going to be in a new baby fog when 4 yrs old rolls around and that I should get on this dentist visit thing pronto. I may have waited too long. He may have talked to his friends about this dentist character. Whatever happened, he wasn’t excited about it from my very first mention of it to him. He immediately was all “I don’t want to go to the dentist!!!” and he was very adamant about it. And all I could think was “why, and how, do you know you don’t want to go to the dentist”? But he stuck to his guns.

Until I told him he would get a new toothbrush and that he could bring grandma bear with him. Grandma bear is allowed to come in the car with us places but she is never allowed to leave the car. So this was a big deal. And the new toothbrush? He loves brushing his teeth, is obsessed with toothbrushes and toothpaste. See….why would he not want to go to the dentist?

So the place we went to was crazy huge and there were TONS of people there and it was SO overwhelming even for me. Thankfully I had the foresight to get a sitter for Riley so I didn’t have to lug him around too, which really would NOT have been possible given what went down there today.

So, they’ve got fun cartoons playing, fun decorations and games and everything. So things are good. Until they call us back. Back where there are so many SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER children. We walk into a room that has four reclined chairs in the middle where children are getting their teeth cleaned and a bunch of TV’s and things hanging from the ceiling. And then there are rooms off to every side where the screaming kids are. Finn immediately clings to me and starts shaking. They try to take him to a small room right there for x-rays, but since I’m pregnant I have to step away, which I thought maybe would help if I wasn’t there. WRONG. x-rays didn’t happen. next they take us back to a room and I finish the paper work, talk to the nurse a bit, Finn seems to warm up a little until….the.dentist.walks.in.and holy hell, Finn loses his mind. The dentist is trying to talk to me over wailing Finn…uh huh, come on, let’s just get going here guy, your jibber jabber isn’t helping.

Next up, I get the joy of helping pin my child down in the chair with the nurse while the very brave dentist sticks his hands/fingers into the mouth of a screaming/wailing 3 yr old. Amazingly the dentist is able to evidently see enough of his teeth to say they look good. Really? Next up cleaning….you know out in the middle room where you can hear all the wailing. He does magically calm down though while we wait for Miss Anna. But Miss Anna finally comes, calls Finn’s name and more wailing/screaming ensues. More pinning down my child. At some point in the middle of the brushing, he does actually calm down and he helps her and he is able to get all of his teeth cleaned!

And look at this picture. Its like nothing has happened. “Look how happy I am to visit the dentist! TWO balloons, coloring book, new toothbrush, floss, a mirror and a sticker! The dentist is AWESOME mom!!!”