Ethyl Is Brave! Her First Dental Visit

Her fears were the buzzing and drillings sounds. My fear was she'd cover her mouth and refused to cooperate with the dentist. She had a phobia about dentists, I know her fears as I had my fair share of bad experiences as a kid.

Declan went to the dentist some time back. His experience was good, and I have been sharing the positive outcome of dental visits. Telling her the importance of her set of healthy pearlies and how it will affect the overall appearance if she fails to take good care of her teeth. She is very mindful about her appearance and image. I reminded her that a good and healthy set of teeth is vital. With Declan's positive "review" from his virgin visit, topped with her self-conciousness, it was a breeze to talk her into leaving the house with me without any tussle.

While waiting, she read a book about oral health. It was a good read. She read about braces and the general oral hygiene and the right way to brush her teeth.

When it was our turn, I let her go first as I will be cleaning my teeth, afraid that the buzzing sound will scare her off. I could sense the tension. She was a little apprehensive when she was asked to sit on the magic chair (dentist chair).

Dr Yeo, upon knowing that it was Ethyl's first visit let her play with the chair, pushing the buttons and making the chair goes up and down, played with the lights etc, letting her have a feel of the environment before the real check sets in

Ethyl was first told that Dr would use a mirror to count her teeth...they counted and Dr Yeo looked up and said, "She has been brushing well. A healthy set of teeth, but did you notice that she has a cavity in one of her front tooth

I nodded and told her that is one of the push factor that I brought her there.

Then she proceeded to scaling and polishing. Dr Yeo will decide if she wants to fix that cavity depending on Ethyl's reactions.

Dr Yeo showed Ethyl how she will perform the polishing. She "painted" her nails with the equipment and asked Ethyl if she feels comfortable to do it on her set of teeth too. Ethyl obliged.

Ethyl did well for the scaling and polishing, so Dr Yeo asked if she could dig out the "worms" hiding in the teeth; she agreed and Dr Yeo did the filling manually. Dr Yeo explained in details to Ethyl and at one point, when Ethyl saw a threatening big equipment on the dental assistant's hand, she cupped her mouth immediately and refused to coorperate!

In the end, we let Ethyl played with the equipment and slowly coaxed her into getting her procedure done.

I am glad that we managed to get it through! Ethyl did well, and she is so proud that she sat through the whole session without much fuss! She was later given stickers and a little gift.

She was told to wean off her bottle as it could be the milk that causes her front tooth to decay. The milk will have sugar that passes through her teeth and may have settled there, so after a prolonged period, causes a cavity. Her teeth is very healthy, I brushed her well :) Nowadays she is brushing herself too! She is quite glad to be praised by Dr Yeo on her effort to maintain her teeth!

Her next appointment is 6 months down the road. Hopefully her teeth will be as good and well kept!

Well done Baby!