Child Dentistry Again

Today was the final visit in our daughter’s dentist saga. All I can say is make sure you get your kids to real kids dentists when they are 2 years old. Because this just wasn’t any fun.

Danielle had already been to the dentist a couple of times for minor cavities. She can actually handle it, but as a four year old she’s reached the point where she knows what’s coming and doesn’t want it. This is the hard part about young kids and dentists. Reasoning doesn’t work that well. And the whole concept of delayed gratification (or even more abstract, delayed lack of pain) just doesn’t work with a four year old’s sense of time.

So the final cavity (the worst one) was a struggle. She just didn’t want to sit still. The whole “if you don’t sit still it will take longer and hurt more” argument just doesn’t work. So I basically spent an hour sitting with her on the dentist chair, holding her hands and leaning over her legs so she couldn’t kick anyone. It was torture.

There’s that plastic thing that they put around the tooth that they are working on these days (they didn’t do that when I was a kid). I think it helps keep the tongue out of the way. Danielle completely knocked it out. You want to get mad at her because she’s causing more problems, but then you remember that she’s just four. The whole thing could have been over in 20 minutes if she just sat still, but that just wasn’t happening.

At the end, they usually give the kid stickers, a balloon, whatever. This time the dentist gave me a medal for holding her down. The dentist told me I deserved a double martini (I’m more of a beer guy, but I appreciated the thought).