Aubrey had her second dental appointment this past January. To say that Aubrey's first dental appointment was exhausting is an understatement. She did not do well at all. The hygienist was able to clean her teeth, but it took her sitting in Danny's lap with his arms around her body and me holding her arms to her side in order to get her teeth cleaned. I had never seen Aubrey act like this before. Once the hygienist was through cleaning her teeth, we wiped all the drool off her face from where she had been screaming while keeping her mouth as closed as possible and she calmed down. The very second the doctor walked in, she flipped out. It was difficult to even talk to her about how we've been cleaning her teeth, what we need to practice from here out, etc. We laid her back for the dentist to look at her teeth and he couldn't pry her jaws open. He told us that she was the strongest kid he had seen in a while. Great! That's my girl! The dentist didn't even charge us for his services since he couldn't even look at her teeth.
I was extremely nervous about taking her to her second visit, especially since I was by myself. To prepare Aubrey for the dentist, she got a Dora electric toothbrush (just like mommy and daddy's) in her stocking. She loves this toothbrush and the fact that it makes noise and she was able to get comfortable with something like this in her mouth helped tremendously. We also started flossing her teeth regularly and let her help us in flossing her teeth. I have to say that Danny has done most of this work with her. He is the bathtub and teeth brushing king!
I started telling Aubrey a couple of days before her appointment that she was going to go back to see the dentist. She looked at me hesitantly the first time I told her, but as we talked about it more, she seemed to be ok with this idea. She was actually acting excited about going on the morning of her appointment. I let her "pack her purse" and take it with us. Here's a picture of she and Daddy before going into the dentist office. (Danny met me so he could ride around - and continue to work - with Anna and Alexandra while they napped and snacked in the car during Aubrey's appt. The new DVD that YaYa gave us for Christmas has come in handy in more ways than I thought it would!)
Once we were there she did great! We went back and she got to pick out a toothbrush. Most of the tooth brushes were Spongebob and she promptly told the nurse that she wasn't allowed to watch Spongebob! I love it! She waited patiently and finally we were called back. Now, last time they took her into a room with a door, but because she was over 3, this time she was in the main area where there are only half walls between each cleaning station. I even got a little antsy when I saw they were going to clean her teeth out in the main area. We walked to the opening of her cleaning station and Aubrey firmly planted her feet and would not walk in. I really started getting antsy at this point. I picked her up and carried her in and left her on my lap as I sat on the cleaning chair. The hygenist was the best. She made Aubrey feel comfortable and before I knew it, Aubrey was voluntarily opening her mouth and letting the hygienist floss her teeth, clean her teeth and even pick/scrape her teeth. The only part that Aubrey really didn't like was the water pick and the suction tube. Aubrey preferred the ole drink from a cup and spit method for rinsing!
The dentist came in and was also pleasantly surprised as how well she was doing. Aubrey let the dentist look at her teeth, he picked and scraped on her teeth as well and she didn't even make a whimper! I was SO SO proud of Aubrey! She was such a big girl!
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