Grin and Bear It

Today was Kaelen's first big visit with the dentist. Okay ... well in the sense of it establishing a regular routine. As some of you may or may not recall, Kaelen has done his best efforts in the past to knock out his four front top teeth. In December of 2005, he knocked them so bad that the pediatric dentist suggested that we get them taken out as they were 100% embedded at an angle into his gums (and had moved around the adult teeth), but due to a miscarriage for me that resulted in an emergency laparoscopy, we missed the appointment to do so. I think that it was the big man's way of saying hang in there, for his teeth that were given a 99% chance of never coming back, came back down about three weeks later. And to this day, with two more serious knocks to them that again, we were advised to have them pulled as "they were going to die" due to root damage, these four teeth remain straight and beautifully white.

As with doctor's appointments, I prepped Kaelen on what to expect for his first official dentist visit. We played pretend with a little mirror and he practiced opening his mouth nice and wide. Our appointment today is what the dentist refers to as a "Happy Visit". He and his staff entertain the kids with chair rides, introduce Mr. Slurpy (the saliva suction wand) and turn up the LCD TV nice and loud with a children's show. After encouraging their potential new patients to open their mouths so that the doctor can take a peek, each child whether the exercise was successful or not, gets taken over to a tickle trunk to pick out their hard earned prize.

We are lucky as we happen to be personal friends with our dentist, so Kaelen knew Dr. Otto going into the appointment and insisted on calling him Peter (in a rather loud voice at that) . Needless to say, both Peter and Kaelen were excellent and each got what they had wanted out of the appointment: Kaelen a new water bottle that he promptly proclaimed was his new "goalie water" and Peter, a nice long look combined with a few pokes with that hook like apparatus to reassure Mommy that all was good with her son's teeth. There were no tears, no fears and lots of giggles. In fact, Kaelen wants to know when his next appointment with Peter is going to be.

Now hopefully Kaelen's oral hygiene can continue in excellent health and he can keep his teeth. Although ... with his fixation on hockey, we are prepared to have a good dental mechanic on speed dial for the future.