Maddie's Day at the Dentist

I have taken each of the kids to the dentist for a normal check-up and teeth-cleaning. When I scheduled the appointments, I kept to the Thursday Mom & Kid day for the younger three; I started with Jon and Ben since they both were comfortable with the dentist and hygienist when they met them at one of Will's appointments. On a Wednesday with the youngest three were at Mother's Day Out, I picked Will up from school, we went for our check-ups, then we enjoyed lunch out before I took him back to school. Maddie would be the last at the dentist.

I usually have very well-thought-out reasons for doing things. Usually, those ideas work out well. My reasons for going in this particular order: all three boys would come home with toys and other goodies from the dentist, the kids would likely play dentist at home, all these would reinforce to Maddie that going to the dentist is fun. That was the plan.

See, way back when I took the three little ones in to watch Will, Jon and Ben were excited to sit in the big reclining chair. They weren't afraid of the light; they had on cool sunglasses. They weren't afraid of Squirty (the water sprayer) or Mr. Thirsty (the spit sucker); they were introduced as equipment made for entertainment. Maddie, on the other hand, buried her nose in my shoulder and refused to participate. When we tried putting her in the seat, she wailed and jumped out. So, you can understand why I was just a bit concerned with her first real appointment.

Sure enough, the boys came home with all the junk neat bouncy balls, jelly bracelets, paper masks, and new toothbrushes. The toys got Maddie excited for her turn at the dentist. The fact that Jon shared his with her was just a bonus. The three little kids took turns sitting in my reclining glider pretending to clean each others teeth. . . just. . . as . . . I . . . planned.

Last Thursday was Maddie's day. We started by dropping off Ben and Jon at preschool. As we were leaving the classroom, Jon leaned over to her and said, "Maddie, the shot REALLY hurts!" Seriously, it was unexpected, out of the blue, a big smack in the face to the little girl who WAS so excited about going to the dentist. Who teaches three-year-olds to taunt each other . . . with LIES? I spent 20 minutes letting her know it would be okay and that there wouldn't be any shots.

I had a lot of trouble not laughing at the entire situation. When we arrived at the dentist's office, Maddie saw the hygienist was wearing pink. That made everything okay. The dentist (a man) waved at her and she said, "The pink lady can clean my teeth, but I'm not showing the man my teeth." I explained he was nice like Granddad and Papa and she said, "Yeah? They don't shot me." When I explained she wasn't getting shots, she just sighed. The hygienist took her back while I sat in the waiting room. They called me back when the dentist came in. As soon as he entered the room, Maddie turned toward him and demanded, "What are you here to do?" He explained he was going to look at her teeth . . . .and that's the end of the story. No dramatic ending (thank goodness.) He looked. She was fine. She got her princess toothbrush, a flower pinwheel that has already been broken, a pencil, a Little Mermaid sticker, a green bouncy ball, and other stuff that has been confiscated.

But now, all the kids will be fine at the next appointment in November.