DENTIST!!

Gus had his very first dental appointment today.

 

He had a good time playing with the sun glasses Reese chose for him. These are supposed to block the bright dentist light from shining in their eyes. He also had a blast racing in the hall and digging through the prize basket.

Reese chose matching ones for himself. Here he is with his hygienist. He was not particularly cooperative at first during the "how often do you brush" questions. He did NOT want to lie down on the table even though they have flat screen tvs on the ceiling running kid movies. It was Beauty and the Beast while we were there.

 

But then he headed off for his very first xray. He actually kind of liked his heavy xray apron. He had to bite down on a flat xray paper (not that thing they shove way in the back for our molar xrays) just right in front. He was totally cooperative. I was shocked.

Then Reese got his teeth polished. He chose strawberry paste for the polisher.

He was super cooperative and followed instructions about not swallowing and let her use the rinse wand and the sucker wand.

Meanwhile Gus practiced brushing the alligator's teeth. Then he used it on himself too. Luckily they said they'd sanitized it.

Then the dentist counted all 4 of his teeth and smeared the fluoride goop on them and Gus was done! Next visit will be his first cleaning. She wants us to floss his bottom 2 teeth since they are pretty close to each other. She said not to worry that he has only 4 teeth at 17 months....it's not a race you know!

I took a photo of the computer screen showing Reese's upper xray. The bottom row of teeth are his baby teeth that are grown in and currently in use. See how perfectly shaped and aligned they are? The second row at the top of the screen are his permanent teeth still inside the jaw/gums. Looks weird, eh?

Here I've drawn lines to show you what you're seeing. The outline marked "extra" is an extra tooth. Mesiodens or supernumerary tooth is what they call it. That means extra tooth in fancy medical speak. They sometimes just erupt on their own and the dentist can do a normal in office extraction. Reese's is upside down with the "tooth" part facing up and the root facing down, so it will not grow out on it's own. We got a referral to an oral surgeon. They are not a pediatric oral surgeon, but this is who our dentist uses. I think if we'd have had a normal experience with Reese I'd probably be so happy to be referred to someone local (Silverdale), but the whole NICU experience makes me feel like we must go to a pediatric specialist for anything atypical. Of course Kitsap County has no pediatric specialists. Our ophthalmologist did a pediatric fellowship, but he still sees grown ups too. Of course any baby or preschooler in town probably goes to him. So these oral surgeons may be the same scenario. When go in for our consultation I will be sure to verify they do this sort of thing frequently on the under 4 set. I think this is more delicate than just removing a rotted tooth, so I want to know they know what they are doing. Since the tooth is right in the middle it has spread the permanent front teeth. Our dentist said he may need an orthodontist sooner than we'd normally have been referred.