Jack's 1st Dentist Appointment

Although I've read and heard that dental appointments are supposed to start when a baby cuts his first tooth, Jack's pediatrician has insisted there was no need in Jack going to the dentist until he turned 3.  I waited until the wedding chaos was over and set his first appointment with Alesia's kids' pediatric dentist for this morning.  He has been there with Shelby and Brandon before and received prizes just for attending, so knowing his excellent memory like I do, I knew he would remember the place and hopefully not have much anxiety about going.  When I discussed it with him, however, he argued with me that Wuke (Emily's new husband is in dental school) was going to look at his teeth.  I love Luke and do plan for him to provide our dental care in the future if at all possible, but I was not about to drive 3 1/2 hours to Jackson, MS for Jack's first appointment.

Honestly, I didn't give much thought to it until the past few days when I realized how haphazardly we brush his teeth.  It isn't for lack of trying, but he just won't stand still for that long and insists on doing it himself.  Once we take over, he clamps that mouth shut and it's all we can do to fit the toothbrush in his mouth.  Here recently, I even bought him a Dora/Diego battery powered toothbrush like mine and Travis's thinking he would enjoy the novelty of it and he does and I really think it's helped.  Still I started wondering just how good of shape his teeth are in and what would be the consequences.

So we arrive at the office and he dives into the Lego's, not looking nervous at all.  It was then that I knew that we had this!  She called us back and had special prizes on his chair - a race car, slinky, and sidewalk chalk.  He chose the slinky without much thought.  Next he chose a new toothbrush while telling the dentist "I just got a new toothbrush, the noise-making kind."  When she laid him down on the chair, he said "Is it okay if I touch my mommy?" and I said "I'll hold your hand, Jack." and he said to the dentist "I gonna hold my mommy's hand."  It's moments like those that I realize that regardless of how big he looks, acts and talks to me now, he's still such a sweet, innocent little boy!

She put sunglasses over his eyes to shade them from the bright light and she did such a good job of talking him through the procedure - acting like she was counting his teeth when she was checking them out and telling him she was painting them while applying the fluoride.  All the while she was instructing me that he should only be drinking milk at mealtimes and water otherwise.  Juice and other sweet drinks are treats only to be had on special occasions and maybe twice a week.  Uh oh!  It wasn't as if I hadn't heard or read that before, but then I really started panicking because at our house he does drink a lot of milk, but not only at meal times and he has juice and lemonade pretty much on a daily basis with water being the only option we give him at bedtime.  He even let the cat out of the bag on that one by saying "I have Hi-C" (as I'm sweating it out beside him) and then he added "at my parties at school."  Whew!  We'll see if any of that speech sunk in tonight when he's "firsty" (thirsty).

In the end, he got a great report!  She said his teeth are in excellent condition that we must be doing a great job brushing them!  The only suggestion she had was for us to start flossing and I'm willing to bet that will be a fun game for Jack, for awhile at least.  Now before the pictures, I have to add that Alesia met me at the dentist with both boys, so she and Marshall were in the waiting area the whole time.  I could hear him squealing with delight or screaming with displeasure throughout the appointment and when the dentist added that she likes to start seeing patients when they turn one, my anxiety started all over again!  Jack's appointment was a piece of cake, but the thought of holding Marshall still for even a few minutes is just unbearable!

Here's the pictures from my big boy's visit:

At the end, he got to choose 2 toys from the basket.  We all know these dentist's "toys".  There's not much to them, but it took Jack longer to pick out his prizes than it took her to clean his teeth!  "I trying to find one that I like." he said and he ended up with 2 identical cameras.  That's my boy!