Healthy Tot

My daughter is 3, so it was time to have her first check-up at the dentist. I decided to bring her to her to my dentist, as opposed to a pediatric dentist. I like and trust them, the staff is nice and friendly. I was worried though, I have heard of little ones being totally freaked out by the whole experience. I did what I could to try to prepare her for what would go on. She kept saying that she didn’t want to go but had no real reasons for why. We looked at the dentist pages in Richard Scarry books, and saw Lowly getting his teeth checked. That seemed to be a good association for her. One of the best coincidences was that one of her little friends had an appointment the day before and we saw her after her appointment. She had a goody bag with all sorts of dental “treats”.
So the next morning we headed off and I held my breath. We got there and were in the waiting room a few minutes and we talked about her being able to pick a special prize at the end of the appointment which made her pleased and we headed in to the examination room.
The hygienist was great, she showed my daughter everything and explained what she was going to do with it. My daughter can be pretty reserved with people who she doesn’t know but was made to feel comfortable right away. She was relaxed and chatty through the whole exam. The hygienist was able to count, check and polish her teeth. (I was told that if things aren’t going well they would stop after getting a tooth count) Despite the fact that my daughter is sadly a juice junky- she had no cavities- which I was really fretting. The hygienist said we should use straws instead of sippy cups for juice and the sippy cups can have water only. The juice goes right onto the front teeth through a sippy cup spout. We were told if she can make sure she swished and rinses well, we should do a tiny bit of fluoride paste. I haven’t gone there yet but we are practicing with the “safe to swallow” stuff still. I really want to make sure she is definitely not swallowing the toothpaste. For now we are going to brush 2 times a day and use the little easy flossers.
Overall it went great, my daughter learned there was nothing to be afraid of and she was happy with her new toothbrush, toothpaste and little toys they gave her. I am so happy it wasn’t a traumatizing first trip the the dentist.