First Dental Visit

Well, I know that it might be a bit past the "recommended" first dental visit (around a child's 1st birthday), but Porter finally made it to the dentist. I didn't really want to see him, because I don't really want to see him until he's older. Besides some "ethics" classes recommend not treating immediate family members for fear of interfering with personal privacy or autonomy issues. Anyway, we tried to prepare Porter a couple weeks in advance on what to expect. Key thing is trying to keep everything as positive as possible to increase the chance that everything will go smoothly for him. I sat down an explained to him several times how the dentist would take a close look at his teeth, how he would tickle them, place a mirror in his mouth for a closer look, explained to him how the dentist will take some really cool pictures of his teeth that he can look at afterwards, paint his teeth purple, and then how the dentist would use a really neat toothbrush and clean his teeth. After a couple of days talking about it he was actually pretty excited to go to the dentist. The only concern he every voiced was having his teeth painted purple. That made me chuckle a bit. I sat and explained to him that his teeth would only turn purple if he had bugs on his teeth and no to worry because if by chance his teeth showed some purple the dentist would get it off in no time. I think for the next couple of day Porter has never asked to have his teeth cleaned as much as he did just prior to his visit. I was able to brush his teeth for howeverlong I wanted. Usually I feel pretty good if he lets me brush for more than a minute. Lately he's let me brush for closer to 3-4 minutes. He did not want his teeth purple. At the dentist he did very well. A little nervous, but he did really well. He was able to see our close friend Jeff and that helped too. Porter loves Jeff. There were also some other friends in the clinic that came over to say hi and I think that helped as well. One time I went in to check on him and there were about 4 students and a couple teacher laughing and having a good time with him. The best part about the whole visit was Porter's beeming smile at the end as he said to me with the proudest voice he has..."Dad! I have no cavities!" His teeth never did show any purple...that is pretty amazing in and of itself.