1st Visit to the Dentist

I've noticed that my blogs are a lot of times used to tell stories of my not so great "mother moments". I don't know why I feel the need to announce to all of blogland my shortcomings, but oh well. I guess you can add my finally taking my 4 and 5 1/2 year old to the dentist to the list. I guess it is better than waiting until their 11 or 12, huh Mom (aka Evil Mother...). Anyway to the story.
A few weeks ago after I posted the entry on Peyton's loose teeth I decided I better schedule an appointment for her to go to the dentist. Good call, right? While making the appointment I thought it might be good to get Emily in too, so I could just "kill two birds with one stone". Part of the reason for waiting so long was that our old dental insurance only covered us to go to PERFECT TEETH. It bothered me for some reason to go to a dental chain. I don't know why....I know they have real dentists and it was probably fine....it was just weird for me to park and go in to a dentist that had a Safeway on one side and a "Cookie Jar" on the other. I was used to the office building setting. It wasn't even until I moved to Colorado that I knew they had dental chains.
Well, with Jimmy's new job came new dental insurance that allowed me to take the girls to a Pediatric dentist in an office building. Imagine my excitement! So...yesterday was the big day....the first visit to the dentist!
I had been building it up for weeks now. "The dentist is great! They have all kinds of cool tools to check your teeth. You'll probably get a new toothbrush! Etc.." Anything to help the look of terror on Emily's (4 year old) face. I have learned from years of experience that any new introduction into her life is difficult, especially when it has to do with doctors. Granted, she has very ligitiment reasons to be a little hesitant and scared after having many traumatic experiences and a full blown surgery only at the age of two. She just doesn't like or trust the doctors. I don't really blame her....but, it just makes my job as the mom a little harder.
I actually had forgotton how many things could be a little scary for a child's first time visit to the dentist. Those tools really aren't so "cool" to a traumatized 4 year old.
When we got there the dental assistant came out to talk to me and ask me a few questions. We decided that it would be a good idea to let Peyton go first and let Emily watch. Since I knew Peyton would not be bothered by the sounds or newness of it all I thought it might help her little sister's experience go easier. That's what thought brought!
The lady that did all the x-rays, cleaning, etc...was really nice, but not nice enough to ease Emily's mind. She explained all the tools and procedures to Peyton....she even let Peyton use a lot of the tools herself. Emily was brave enough to help count Peyton's teeth and even helped brush them with the chocolate toothpaste coated rotating rubber thingy. The whole time I'm thinking, "maybe this won't be so bad". I was wrong! By the time it was Emily's turn to sit in the chair and put the little square x-ray cracker into her mouth while watching a huge foreign object, that they call a camera inch closer and closer to her face; it was all over with! She was done! Needless to say they didn't get any pictures of Emily's teeth. She managed to barely get a teeth cleaning and allowed the suction stick in her mouth for maybe 2 seconds before she pushed it away. It was not a pretty sight. Nothing like the scene of Peyton from ten minutes before with sunglasses on, vitamin foam filled mouth and suction straw in hand enjoying the beach scene flourescent light cover above her on the ceiling. Emily was not having the same enjoyable experience her sister had. The dentist managed to calm her long enough to get a brief exam and that was it. No lesson on flossing, no vitamin bath, no x-rays and we were actually ok with that at this point. It was time to go home!
While leaving I told Emily that we would go back in about 6 months and by that time she would be closer to 5 years old and it would probably be easier. She just looked up at me and said, "No, I don't think I want to go back until I'm like....um...8!"