Great Little Patient

When I took Carter for his 3 year old checkup in May, the Pediatrician informed me that it was time to take him to the dentist, so today was the day...his FIRST dentist appointment. A friend suggested Bartlett Pediatric Dentistry, so that's where we went. I tried to prepare him for the appt by telling him what all they would do and of course the first thing he said was..."they going to give me a shot"? I reassured him that I didn't think that would happen this time. He said he was going to do what they said. He DID EXACTLY what they asked of him. They were so good with him. We got there right on time for the appointment at 10 (I even left early and everything, but unfortunately, I took the wrong turn, but we did get there). We got seen really quickly. They took us back to this big open room where they do all the cleanings. Lesley, the dental hygienist, showed him all the tools, letting him touch them and seem for himself that they wouldn't hurt. This praticular tool just tickled a bit.

Then it was time for him to lay back and let her get to cleaning his teeth. She asked him if the bright light was too much and he said "yes" and she gave him some shades to wear...doesn't he look cool.

Right after this, he was lying there with his mouth WIDE OPEN and ready for her but she wasn't quite ready yet...he's such a good sport. I will admit, I was laughing at this moment.

She asked him what he liked to drink and instead of him saying what he should've said, oh no, he busted me...he said "sweet tea". She quickly informed him that wasn't good for his teeth...he's probably not happy with all these visits b/c his pediatrician told him he couldn't have coke or sprite either, so he's going to soon tell me we can't go on these visits b/c they are going to take something that taste good away...we can all agree here, right??!!!?!!

Then here he is getting them "counted", but she's really checking for cavities and cleaning at the gum line.

Early in the appt she asked him which flavored he liked: Grape, Cherry, BubbleGum, and all he said was the blue one...I told her he was a color type of dude, so she then said to you want purple, red, or pink and he still said blue, so I told her to just go with the Grape one (it's dark kind of like blue). :-) Now it's time to clean his teeth with the blue, I mean Grape stuff.

She had one last tooth to clean and he said "no" but she bribed him by letting him hold the suction thing. It took him a while to get the hang of close your mouth for it to work properly...she kept telling him to "kiss" it...he finally did it.

Can you believe that he even let her floss his teeth...something I've never done on him. He's such a good and brave boy!!!

He's all done. Just look at those clean pretty teeth. :-)

I thought they would take x-rays of his teeth but Lesley said they usually start that at age 5 unless they see something suspicious. However, his looked fine and she saw no build up.

Now that Lesley's done, it's time for the doctor to check everything out.

Dr. Tim said all looked GREAT!!! His spacing looks good for when those permanent teeth come in. Even though I questioned about his grinding, they said they couldn't tell it at all and that there is nothing that they would do for it at this point, not until he's about 10 or so. They said overall, we were doing what we were supposed to do and to keep it up.

One final picture of all of them.

Notice the prize he picked out...a yoyo!!! He was such a Great Little Patient. I am SO PROUD of him!!! See there, he can follow instructions!!! I knew he could!!! Love ya Carter!! :-)

We were out of there by 10:40. So I like that we got in there and out of there really quickly. Since we did, we went shopping at Hobby Lobby (Everything scrapbooking was on sale...I just couldn't resist) and had lunch at Chick-fil-a to let Carter play a little bit. Then we had to get home to let the cable guy in to get us hooked up to some faster services...YEAH!!!!