Night and Day

Yesterday, I took my son to the dentist for a cleaning.  The last time he had been was a little over a year ago.  I know you're supposed to go to the dentist every 6 months, but our living arrangements have been less than conducive to such things.  Not to mention, the last dentist appointment didn't go all that well so I was working up the courage (and praying they forgot how bad it went).

At that appointment they tried to get bite-wing x-rays, a panoramic x-ray, and the standard cleaning.  None of then went particularly well.  There was lots of crying, squirming, and gagging.  Yesterday, was different... only because they didn't try to get a panoramic x-ray.  Otherwise it was very similar to last time... crying, squirming, and gagging, but more of it than last time (at least that's how I'm remembering it).  I even tried bribing him with cash (it got him to handle the x-rays and the flossing better than last time, but didn't work with the cleaning one little bit). 

Today, I took my daughter (Note: I knew not to take them at the same time because I knew they would play off each other because they did last time).  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it went MUCH better than her appointment last year and worlds better than her brother's appointment yesterday.  In fact, I would say this was a wonderful appointment.

I've been trying to figure out why my older child seems to have a bigger issue with the dentist and I've come up with a few possibilities.  The first is that he has a gag reflex that his sister doesn't have.  The second, and maybe more important one is the hygienist.  I found out after my son was done, that they did not schedule him with the "child" hygienist.  My daughter however, did get her.  She explained everything to my daughter, she gave her time when she needed it and she didn't push the x-rays before the cleaning. 

Neither of my children were found to have any cavities.  In fact, the hygienist today said they wouldn't even consider taking x-rays unless there was concern after the cleaning.  Yesterday, my son was forced to try to do the x-rays before the cleaning and with his gag reflex, that really got things off to a bad start.

I think what I've learned from all of this is that for the next cleaning I'm going to make sure 1. My kids don't go at the same time, 2. I make sure they are scheduled with the "kid-preferred" hygienist, and 3. I'm going to make sure the order of procedures is such that there is the least stress in the beginning as possible. 

I'm just happy that one of my kids did well.  If she hadn't, I think I would have had to have a nice strong drink when I got home.