Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Benjamin's First Emergency and Wally's First Minor Heart Attack Part II: The Dentist



A friend had read the post concerning Ben's first emergency the other day and called to ask what had happened. After the conversation, I promised her a follow up to what did happen to Ben's tooth.
As requested by the dentist, we scheduled an appointment two days following the trauma (her words not mine) to see if there were any issues. But, before I tell you about Ben's experience at the dentist for the first time, I want to pay homage to my childhood dentist Dr. Regan (Mom can you confirm the name?). I'm not a big fan of doctors in general, though I have started to become braver and more tolerant in that department. However, lumped in that category was never "the dentist". I actually remember enjoying my visits to the dentist. Even when I had to have my teeth filed -- not filled, filed...sorry for the cringing, I still didn't hold it against Dr. Regan. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much my son is agreeing with my love of children's dentists at the moment.
Picked out of the phone book, we went to Children's Dentistry of Morristown and Ben meet with the very lovely Dr. Suzy (who also has a Ben). Upon entering, he was thrilled to find a box filled with dinosaurs. However, the first thing that pissed him off was having to leave the dinosaurs to see Dr. Suzy. He calmed down pretty quickly but was fired back up again when asked to smile so the dental hygienist could stick something in his mouth. Even a truck sticker didn't do much good to soothe the savage beast. While we waited for Dr. Suzy, Ben wanted out of the room. He eventually, pretty quickly actually, figured out how to open the door of the examining room. While trying to escape, he ran into the doctor who brought him back into the dreaded room. At that point, Ben was cool with her. Until, she started poking around his mouth. Ben started screaming and his face became a bright red. I think he was kicking too. Thank god Wally was there as well because one of us had to calm Ben down while the other listened to what the doctor had to say. Above the screams, we heard that everything was fine. In fact, that if he had to have an accident this was probably our best bet. The tooth isn't loose and may be pushed back into place (somewhat) by Ben's tongue. Eventually, the tooth will fall out when he is about 5 or 6 which is the norm.
After the assessment, we commented to her how it bummed Wally and me out that this happened because his teeth are so darn perfect. Then she dropped the orthodontist bomb on us..."well, we actually like to see more space between the teeth because his adult teeth are about tooth and a half larger." Sorry, Ben. Looks like braces are in your future.
As we were leaving, Dr. Suzy and her staff tried to make it up to Ben by giving him stickers, tub toys, tooth brushes and a token to get something in the gumball machine in the lobby. This seemed to make the frown on his face disappear. The frown came back pretty quickly when we wouldn't let him leave with one of the office's matchbox cars.
Am I looking forward to the next visit? No but I think Ben will warm up to this dentist thing. Either that or we'll need to promise him lots of toys after each visit.

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