John's First Dental Appointment

On our way to John's first dental appointment!

The dental hygienist was fantastic with John, and told me her whole philosophy of how important it was to her to make a child's early experiences with dentistry positive ones. (She even quit a job once because the dentist was trying to force her to clean a child's teeth when he was clearly too young and terrified.) She made the whole thing very fun for John--and this is a kid with oral aversions!

He got to wear sunglasses under the bright light. I wondered, why couldn't I wear those? I've been closing my eyes in the dental chair for years!

I didn't know if John would tolerate anything in his mouth and my only goal was that he'd have a positive idea of the dentist's office, even if all that happened was we visited and maybe the hygienist counted his teeth. However, he tolerated having his teeth polished with the buzzing tool, having them flossed, and having them checked by the dentist! John had a good time, got to touch everything, earned many stickers and prizes, and got a clean bill of health too.