Everett's First Dentist Appointment

This past Monday, Everett had his first dental visit at The Kid's Dentist. It pretty much went how I expected- refusal to sit in the chair, crying, no opening of the mouth. Typical behavior for such the event for a 2 year old. There was a girl a few months younger than him that cooperatively sat in the chair and opened her mouth and allowed the doctor to look around and clean her teeth. I remember thinking to myself, "Man, that would be totally awesome if Everett did that." Ha. Not.

As I've learned, kids can sense what's going on by their environment. He took one look at the chair and the tray of floss, toothpaste, and picks and ran the other way. They had this stuffed alligator with human-like teeth and a gigantic toothbrush as a means of getting him involved and helping to brush its teeth but he wanted nothing to do with it. They even tried bribing him with a toy police car to get him to show them how he brushes his teeth. He refused as long as they were looking at him. They turned their backs and he started brushing (gnawing) on the toothbrush.

I was/am concerned for his teeth as he doesn't allow Dale or I to actually brush them. As mentioned in this blog post, Everett's version of brushing is teeth is gnawing on his toothbrush. After 2-3 days, the bristles are worn and we go through toothbrushes like crazy. We've even tried taking turns: I brush my teeth and he helps me and then he brushes his teeth and I get to help him. He doesn't let me help him. He kicks and hits and throws the toothbrushes. {sigh}

And the doctor wants me to encourage flossing? I can't even get him {or I} to actually brush his teeth, let alone flossing. We did get him floss picks though so he can begin familiarizing himself with them. Again, he just chews on them and doesn't let me help.

Thankfully, his teeth are in good shape and there are no immediate concerns. They did say several times how nice of teeth he had and I owe that to his well-rounded diet of lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

Dale and I have resorted to holding him down and getting a good brush of his teeth a few times a week. Somewhat similar to what they did...

Here are some pictures of the dental office. I was pretty impressed how kid-friendly their office was. I was also pleased that they respected the fact that we do not give fluoride drops nor want the fluoride treatments at his visits. Everett uses an organic toothpaste that has Xylitol {natural cavity preventative} in it.

We took Everett out to lunch afterwards. We felt it was well-deserved. I sure wouldn't enjoy strangers holding me down and poking different picks in my mouth and cleaning my teeth while I was screaming and choking on my own saliva. Darn right I would expect someone to treat me to a nice lunch too!

{See Food!}