Re: Dentist

[Guest guest]

Sherri

I seem to live at the dentist with my kids.

My daughter started going just before she turned 3 (for a filling).

My advice to you would be to 1.) keep it low key. Tell Abby the dentist

needs to count her teeth. That's low stress and she really doesn't need to

hear anything else.

2) When my kids were real young (you might still be able to do this at 6

years of age) I would sit on the chair and they would sit on my lap. That

seemed to comfort them.

3) Adam did well with the needle for freezing if it wasn't called that. My

dentist called it " sleeping tooth medicine " . And my dentist is real good at

making that great, big long needle kind of come up and over the chin where

the kids can't see it coming! But I stood right beside Adam (actually sort

of kneeled) and held his hand. That also was comforting for him.

4) Adam absolutely hated the cotton swab the dentist had to put in his

mouth. It was to keep the tooth dry (for a filling but I'm on a roll here so

I'll give you all the advice LOL). I guess it just felt really big in his

mouth. But he went through the freezing NO problem, the drilling NO problem

and then this darn cotton and he screamed like it was the end of the world.

You might want to warn the dentist to use the smallest of anything he has.

Just in case. I think it just felt way too large in his little mouth.

5) When I needed the big guns......I bribed. If you sit still and let the

doctor do what he has to do, you can get *anything* from Toys R Us (which

got downsized when we got there to *anything* $20.00 or less LOL).

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Oh wait! I got so carried away with priming you for Abby's visit I forgot to

mention what you should know.

Give Abby some Tylenol before you go or maybe right before the dentist

starts. Once the freezing wears off it can be sore. Also the doctor will

give you some.....hmmmm what do you call them.....oh gauzes (spelling?) and

I would roll one up and have Adam (or Colette if she had a tooth pulled)

bite down on it. It stops the bleeding. It always looks like more blood then

it actually is because it mixes with the saliva.Make sure you get several

for the car ride home. Usually by the time we got home (about an hour after

the tooth was pulled) the bleeding would be stopped. But I had to roll up

several of them while I drove. Oh don't forget to have the dentist give you

a little treasure box for the tooth so it can go home for the tooth fairy.

You might call in advance and ask the doctor if they have them, you could

always bring one or two neat containers with you and have Abby pick one(I

wouldn't have her pick one in advance of the visit because she may freak out

that she might have a tooth pulled). Also, in regards to the tooth having

been pulled. Only once I had this happen with my daughter. The bleeding

would not stop after wards. I found out later a wet tea bag on the site

will help stop the bleeding. But you can ask your dentist how long it should

bleed for and what you should do if it continues to bleed. I pretty much

freaked out when that happened, and subsequently found out what to do. Of

course we have probably had 15 teeth pulled since then (between the 2 kids)

and it's never happened again.

OK I think that's all of my advice.

Let us know how it goes.

take care

Debby

Dentist

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> I've got a dental appointment tomorrow for my 6 year old daughter,

> Abby. It's her first appointment with a dentist and I'm pretty sure

> they're going to have to numb her (which means shot!) and pull a baby

> tooth that hasn't come out like it should.

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> Does anyone have any pointers for anything you do to prepare for the

> dentist or make sure you have the dentist do?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Sherri D. - Mom to 6 year old twins - Abby (RSS) and Sam (nonRSS)

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