First Dentist Trip

I have been procrastinating about Catie’s first trip to the dentist for ages. I know how she freaks out when presented with something new and unfamiliar, and I was dreading it. But we’ve been talking about it for a while – how the dentist cleans your teeth and makes sure they’re strong and healthy, and there are NO BOO-BOOS (read: shots) at the dentist, so it’s great! fun! times! Yaaaay, dentists!!!

She didn’t buy it. I can’t say I blamed her. I hate the dentist myself. But she should’ve had her first dentist appointment ages ago, so I finally sucked it up and made the appointment.

We talked about it a lot ahead of time. I told her that she’d get a prize afterward if she was good – I remembered that her cousin’s dentist had a treasure chest of prizes to choose from, and I assumed that our pediatric dentist would be similarly hooked up. And then afterward, we’d go out for a special Mommy & Catie lunch, just the two of us, and then she could go to daycare and tell all the kids about her exciting morning. She seemed sort of cautiously ok with that plan.

I have to say, I think we had the nicest dental hygienist on earth, and I will praise them to the skies just for this one lady alone. She was great with Catie, showed her all of her tools ahead of time and explained what each one did and reassured her that nothing was going to hurt. I kept waiting for Catie’s freak-out, and it never happened. She lay down in the chair, she wore the little light-blocking sunglasses, she opened her mouth like a good little patient, and she giggled through most of the appointment. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement.

The hygienist did her thing, the dentist checked her out and said she looked great, and they sent us on our way. And that’s the one part of the trip where things started to fall apart. Catie wanted to see the prize chest. There wasn’t one. There were some dinky 10-cent plastic rings and some funny pencils, but that was about it. Catie was not happy. I whispered to her to just say “no thank you” and that I’d take her to the store to get a prize when we left. I mean, seriously, it’s my own fault for talking up the prize aspect so much, I felt like I had to follow through on my end of the bargain.

There’s a Wal-Mart down the street from the dentist’s office. We headed over there, made a beeline for the exact toy that I knew Catie wanted (for those of you who’ve seen Toy Story 3, she’s been asking for Buttercup, the unicorn, ever since we saw the movie), and I bought it for her on the spot.

Out for pizza after her first trip to the dentist
I love this picture of her because she was trying to show off both her unicorn and her “pretty white teeth!”, but the lighting is horrible because the sun was behind her & the iPhone doesn’t have a flash. Sigh.

Then, since she’d asked for pizza for our Special Mommy & Catie Lunch Date, I saw that there was a pizzeria a couple of doors down from Wal-Mart. We walked over, bought 2 slices, and had a lovely lunch.

Out for pizza after her first trip to the dentist

She was so excited to go to daycare afterward to tell all the kids about the dentist. I tell you, that girl never ceases to amaze me.

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Total non-sequitur conversation in the parking lot after her dentist visit. (This doesn’t relate to anything, I just think it’s hilarious.)

Me: …blah-blah-blah’ing about what a good job she did and how brave she was and how I’m so, so proud of her…

Catie: Yeah. [pause] Pop-Pop is my friend.

Me: [kind of thrown by the change of topic, but ooookay] Yes, sweetie, Pop-Pop is your friend, and he loves you very, very much.

Catie: Pop-Pop and Mimi are gonna come to our house.

Me: Well, I hope they can come to our house for a visit soon. That’d be nice. And you know, hopefully soon, they’ll sell their house in Mississippi and move up here, and then we’ll be able to see them a lot more often. That’ll be great when that happens, huh?

Catie: Yeah! Maybe we can share with them!

Me: [confused] Share what with them, babe?

Catie: We can share our house with them!

Me: [thinking: yeah, except then your Daddy will divorce me] Well, you know, sweetie, Mimi & Pop-Pop have a lot of stuff, and I don’t think all their stuff would fit into our house with all of our stuff, so they probably need to have their own house.

Catie: Oh. Ok.

Hopefully that’ll settle the issue of my parents moving in with us, because as much as I love them, and I really really do… no. Just no.

11 thoughts on “First Dentist Trip

  1. I’m so happy that everything went well! Bummer about the treasure chest though. I’m so proud of her!

  2. She’s a little doll. (And she has such pretty white teeth!)
    : )
    I’m glad you got her a Buttercup. It takes a lot of courage to go to the dentist – I know, I have to go tomorrow!

  3. I REALLY need to take my girls to the dentist. They are 2-1/2 but one of them lost two bottom teeth in a crib-biting accident when she was one (don’t make me relive it — it was traumatic!) so I really should see if there will be any spacing issues.. But they are terrified of strangers and when we went to the pediatrician for heir two-year check up they freaked so much she couldn’t complete the exam. How old is your daughter? I think I just need to bite the bullet and drag them in there.

    • @Lulu and Moxleys Mom, She’s 3 1/2. I read somewhere that they don’t have to go until they turn 3. I put it off an extra 6 months because I needed that much time to psyche myself up for it. And then it was really not nearly as bad as I expected. Just make sure you go to a pediatric dentist that caters to kids – I think that helped a TON.

  4. Adorable! Our girls did well during their first trip to the dentist, which made the second one easier. I’m sure it will stay fine until one of them needs a cavity filled. When that happens, all bets are off for both of them.
    .-= Shari´s last blog ..Daddy Says =-.

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