How we get our shiny teeth.

B had her first dentist appointment last week. She loved the waiting room and the fish tank, but became quite cautious once in the exam room. She was unimpressed by the video monitor in the ceiling above the chair (playing Lilo & Stitch, a current favorite as luck would have it); neither did she find the cherry scented/flavored rubber gloves or the kid-friendly toothpaste particularly distracting or delightful. She was very somber and serious throughout the cleaning and eager to jump in mama's lap as soon as the dental assistant gave her the go ahead. And after that she was pretty much done; she cried when the next person walked in the room (another assistant just there to to set up for the dentist). The pediatric dentist, Dr. Laleh Vakili , was wonderful. B got to stay in T's lap for the exam and she really took her time to talk to B and to explain everything to T. Once safe in the get-away car, B was excited about her dental care loot and played with the stickers, little travel size toothpaste and new toothbrush for days. Oh, and her special prize, the one she got to pick out, was a princess rubber ducky. Big fun!


T has also been having several appointments at the dentist lately. We got a great recommendation from Dr. Vakili for a dentist very close to us. T liked her and her office staff right away. We knew that T would be needing some work done because our last dentist told her as much right before we moved down here. But for reasons unknown to us, T has trouble with some pain killers wearing off too quickly (she has had this problem in the past with Novocaine and most famously with her epidurals) the dentist gave her a little extra to begin with to be safe and she still had to stop the process and get additional shots twice! So a 90 minute appointment quickly turned into two and a half hours! Not fun, very exhausting and emotionally draining; not to mention painful. When the dentist was having T practice her bite to be sure the filling was shaped well, T thought "my that feels awfully squishy" for almost a minute before realizing she was biting down on her numb tongue! That took almost three days to heal. Ouch! One more filling on Monday morning, but they promise it will only take a fraction of the time. Fingers crossed please!