Preserving that Precious Smile

The day after Ethan's first eye appointment, we checked another first off our list with a trip to the dentist.

When we arrived for his dentist appointment, Ethan made himself right at home with a coloring book that he sprawled out with on the floor.

After about five minutes in the waiting room, it was time for Ethan's turn in the dentist's chair. We all cracked up when the dental assistant asked Ethan about his teeth and he made these funny faces while trying to show her his teeth.

Just like we lucked out with Ethan knowing our eye doctor since he's our neighbor, the dental assistant is also our neighbor. I guess that's what happens when you live in a such a small town. Anyway, she was wonderful with explaining what she was going to do to Ethan and making him feel comfortable. She brought out a large teeth model to show Ethan and he got a kick out of her chomping its' teeth.

They let Ethan hold the little mouth mirror while they counted his teeth - 10 on the top and 10 on the bottom.

After counting his mouth full of teeth, they brushed his teeth with a standard toothbrush. They want to work up at each visit with adding additional tools and features so that Ethan remains comfortable and doesn't get a fear of the dentist.

Once Ethan's teeth were brushed, the dentist came in to do the examination. Ethan's favorite part was the large, overhead light they shined in his mouth. The boy loves flashlights and thought that Daddy could use one of those things at home.

By the time we were finished, Ethan was getting a little impatient and nervous. He really wanted to sit on my lap, as he had done at the eye doctor, but he managed well in their booster seat.

The dentist gave Ethan a clean report on his teeth. Yippee! Then Ethan got to pick out a toy and he chose a plastic snake. It was kind of nice that they had normal toys to choose from and not just toothbrushes. Ethan loved the snake and took it everywhere with us for a couple of days until it was lost at the grocery store. (I hope someone didn't get a scare with a little snake peaking out from the grocery store shelf.)

We struggled with picking out our dentist for Ethan. There are two dentists to choose from in Phillipsburg and Jim goes to one and I go to the other. We ended up going with Dr. Miller's dentist office, which is Jim's dentist. They did a wonderful job, especially the dental assistant. I think it's probably time for them to update their examination rooms though. Things were looking very 1970's back there.

We have one more "first" next week and then Ethan will be done with appointments for a while.