Today was the dreaded day. The dentist day. Luke's first dentist day and in our family this will only be the first of many dreaded days at the dentist because of terrible teeth. Well, not actually terrible, just not great. I guess it has something to do with soft enamel or acidic saliva or some sort of combination of both which means that we need to fork out excessive amounts of cash to put fillings in baby teeth because we can't let those cavities mature because somehow it will do great harm to the big kid teeth hiding somewhere deep within those cavernous gums. Or some such thing. At any rate, knowing Luke and his aversion to anything that is not his idea and knowing how much he hates his hair cuts and how much he hates having his nails trimmed and how difficult brushing his teeth is, I knew today would be something of an adventure.
So our adventure begins with Luke falling asleep on the way to the dentist. It's never a good sign when you have to wake a sleeping toddler as you cart him to a place where he is going to be poked and prodded and he knows it. So we walked into the dentist office and the office manager said in her very smiley voice "oh is this Mitchell and Luke?" and Luke said "NO!" like maybe he was actually someone else and she was really rude to even consider that he was that other person.
Well, Mitchell had a great check up and for once we just got that news that we are only "watching" some spots. I think that these are the same "spots" we've been watching for a couple of years and, yes, they are different from the spots that were watched and deemed not good a visit or so ago resulting in another visit in order to fix those spots, but these particular spots are holding steady. I actually think the purpose of the dentist telling me we are watching spots is to scare me into flossing Mitchell's mouth every day or so. And it generally works, so his scare tactics really are quite effective, but after this next bit he might be reconsidering how frequently he wants my family in his office so I'm not sure we're going to be "watching spots" much longer, particularly since the receptionist did "forget" to schedule the next six month check up, so.......
So, here it is: Luke's turn. I should preface this by saying that today he has returned to saying his very emphatic "NO WAY, JOSE" which is good, I guess, since I was missing that little phrase coming out his mouth the last few weeks. But, since he was yelling this at the hygienist during Mitchell's entire appointment I did have a bad feeling about how his turn would turn out.
First of all, he refused to sit in "the chair" and then he refused to let that hygienist get anywhere near him and it didn't get any better when the dentist arrived. Luke proceeded to scream at the top of lungs from the moment the dentist walked into the room and didn't stop until we were in the car. I'll just summarize the ordeal with this: he bit, he screamed, he spit, he frothed at the mouth, he thrashed and thrashed and thrashed, and he had a look in his eyes that will probably haunt me for the next while because it seemed to saying "mom, this is killing me, literally, and I can't believe you would let this happen to me and I'm so scared and I'm possibly possessed by an evil spirit but you have to love me anyway!" He thrashed about so much that he kicked off his sneaker which the dentist very nicely picked up handed back to him, and then he proceeded to chuck it across the room as hard he could and refused to put that shoe back on no matter what. I guess it was tainted with the dentist's coodies.
But our adventure ends at the reception desk (with Luke clinging to me like a little monkey hanging onto its mother for dear life) where the boys picked out their prizes for behaving so well. Luke, who, I remind you, was still screaming, would not pick a prize....until he saw the bouncy balls and then he stopped crying long enough to choose his color before he resumed the noise. In an effort the soothe the kid, that very nice office manager offered him several other prizes and stickers, bribes in other words, all of which ended up in my purse because he claimed he didn't want them and so he was not to be pacified...until we reached the car and after thirty seconds or so he said, "Hey, I want my stickers." And with that it was done.
I can't wait for next time!
10 comments:
Well, I can't say my kids have ever been quite like that, but I have been...that is after they gave me the bill. I just love it, when after billing me $300 for a baby root canal at one visit, at the next visit they bill me another $150 for pulling out THE SAME TOOTH!
Man, who do you go to? I took Anna to Dr. John Miller and she was having a fit so they just said "We don't want this to be tramatic for her or she will never want to come again so you just see if you see any spots when you brush and we will try again in 6 months. She is still young enough that it is not that big of deal" So we did the other kids and Anna is off the hook until next time.
I love how you described this all, you are a hoot!
Uh-oh. This is just around the corner for us. Since James won't let ME look in his mouth--I'm not sure how the dentist will fair. Great art additions btw. Fun (for me) post!
Jess
So, next time you are up, take a look in Joshie's mouth. You will see why you fill baby cavities. He has a spacer holding a spot for a molar which should arrive in...eight or nine years. Maybe the bad teeth ARE genetic.
Oh, I have no doubt about the bad genes, particularly after my very old mouth just had to have a filling last month! You would think I should have this brushing and flossing thing down at this point in my life, but apparently that is not the case. So really I like to think that my kids have it from both sides...even though Williams somehow seems to have figured things out at this in HIS life!
Carrie, I guarantee that bad teeth are genetic. For instance, my brother never brushed his teeth in high school. He was simply that lazy. I even took his tooth brush out of his bathroom and he never missed it! Anyhow, he or any of the rest of my brothers don't have any cavaties. Again, none of us floss or take any better care then anyone else. Now I'm not trying to brag, because my parents invested about 10 grand in my orthodontic work. I just wish we could choose the genetics for our kids!
Yes, Brooke, it is too bad we can't choose those genetics...because Gabe and I come from our dad, and he had the worst teeth! But at least Gabe and I didn't have braces! I guess maybe there are some good teeth genes (oh yeah, those came from mom, dad did have braces!)
Snort! I decided to check out the blogs of friends of my friend Redhoodoo.
I can see why she enjoys your blog- that post was hillarious and sadly, all too familiar!
Carrie, My oldest daughter, 34, your age, has not been to the dentist since she was 12 years old! She acted just like Luke did at the dentist for a check-up. Neither Bob of I would take her again and he husband can't get her to go now. She needs her teeth cleaned really really badly and they very yellow. It is so sad. I think it is some kind of sickness. I go to the dentist every 6 months! I catch problems early and my teeth are clean and in good shape. I think we need to "put her out" and drive her to the dentist! I know how you feel. Chelsea had her first feeling at 18 months old@ She had an abscessed tooth the summer she turned 5--we didn't know what was wrong with here--she was just grumpy and awful. I finally noticed her "yellow" tooth.
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