Insights and Incisors. Or: Our Visit to the Dentist

I took Dale and Alan to the dentist this week.  It was our first visit to a relatively new pediatric dentistry office nearby.  What an incredible place!  If more grown-up dentists went to those lengths to make going to the dentist that appealing to adults people would be lining up to get in.  But then adults aren't as easy to please as kids, so maybe that wouldn't work after all.


At any rate, this office was super-fun and kid-friendly.  Dale and Alan and Tyler and I got to stay together for the whole process, exams and everything.  The extensive paper-work I signed before-hand said siblings over 2 weren't usually allowed to stay together (in case the first one got panicky and scared the second) but I guess we all behaved ourselves well enough the staff never batted an eye.


There were toys galore in the waiting room and the exam room.


The exam room was outfitted with a flat exam 'bed' instead of a chair, and a flat screen tv mounted on the ceiling.


Dale had his cleaning first and did great.  Even though he was a little bit nervous, Alan climbed up next, a perfectly willing subject.  However, he quickly got a little squirrelly because of the bright lights in his eyes.  This obviously wasn't the first time the hygienist had heard this, because without missing a beat, she asked Alan if he wanted to wear sunglasses.  His response?  With hands firmly clamped over eyes, "Yeahdude."  Yeah dude?  Had to be the nerves talking there.


So anyway, Alan did great for his exam too, wearing a cool pair of shades the whole time.


Meanwhile, Dale is checking out all the toys in the exam room, including a largish stuffed monster thing with a humongous set of dentures.  Something very much like (if not identical to) this:

Now, in true homeschooler style, the week before our dentist appointments we checked out a tooth book from the library.  A book Dale happens to find hilarious.  So there we sat in the exam room and Dale starts messing around with Denture Monster's great big chompers.  As he points out each tooth he says to me, "Hey look Mama! Incisor, incisor, canine, premolar....".

At which point the hygienist lady turns away from Alan's Stevie Wonder exam and eyes Dale with her own look of wonder and amazement.  "Are you going to be a dentist!?" she laughed. "Where did you learn that?"  As Dale started to explain about the book he had read a second hygienist came into the room to deliver a message.  Hygienist one immediately relates to hygienist two the tooth-naming recital she has just heard and Dale goes back to his playing.  Meanwhile, I sat in the corner trying to hide a foolish grin the size of Denture Monkey over there.

All told, the rest of the visit, including x-rays and exams went very well and the boys left with their pockets stuffed full of toys and stickers and sugar-free lollipops.

We're all looking forward to our next visit.  I'll think we'll 'brush' up on enamel, dentin, pulp, and roots for that one.  Never know when you might need to impress someone!

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