We decided when M was around a year old that we would take her around her 18 month-ish birthday.
And, since my Husband is wonderful and wants to be a part of everything, we scheduled the appointment for the week he took off from work. Ya know, for our anniversary. (Have I mentioned I married a pretty fantastic guy?)
M was playing in the waiting room. They had a pacman arcade game and some other arcade machine. I'm positive The Husband enjoyed them more than M.
Anyway.
A lady came to us in the waiting room and offered M a pink or purple toothbrush. M was extremely hesitant. In fact, I'd never seen her be SO cautious. With my prodding, M cautiously took the pink toothbrush, said thank you, and kept her distance from the lady.
The Husband held M on his lap while one lady held her arms down, Hubs had to keep her from sliding off him, another lady held her legs down and I had to hold M's head in place.
In short, it.was.horrible.
M was hysterical. No screaming, but oceans of tears, and well, she was terrified. Absolutely 110% scared. It took almost 10 minutes to calm her down, all while she's pointing to "moon!" and "stars!" and other objects she was able to point out in between sobs.
Sweet child, I tell ya.
We cut the visit short because, well, there was no other option.
But M has a clean teeth bill of health and even said bye to her new dentist friends.
A silver lining, I suppose.
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I don't think there is really a "right" time to take kids to the dentist, persay. For a variety of reasons, your outcome included, we chose to wait to take Logan till he was three. And then we realized we didn't have dental insurance so we had to wait till he was four. And he did beautifully and the dentist swore that four was a perfectly acceptable time for a first visit. Phew.
ReplyDeleteWell, that sounds traumatic! I'll have to ask Michael about McK's first experience at the dentist!
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