Christian’s 1st dental visit

I had been meaning to bring Christian to have his teeth checked for the longest time, but did not have time to do so when I was still working. Now that I am home for a while, I’ve been trying to tick off the items on my to-do-list, and so finally made an appointment to bring him to the dentist on Friday.

How did I decide on which dentist to go? Well, I googled and saw from some forums how expensive some recommended kid dentists can be. The other end of the spectrum is the polyclinic dentists, which P said are really cheap.

I wanted a place that was kid-friendly and non-intimidating, so that Christian will have a positive 1st encounter, and not fear going to the dentist. (Though on hindsight I suppose that is largely determined by the state of his teeth. If his teeth is full of holes, no amount of dressing up will overcome the trauma of the drill and filling.)

Anyway, I decided on Q&M after seeing some photos of their kid-friendly outlets. Hah. To prepare Christian for his visit, I read him “Topsy and Tim go to the dentist” many times over. I liked that the book had the twins go through different experiences. Tim’s teeth were perfectly fine, whilst Topsy had to have a filling done. The author was obviously careful to cover both scenarios, so that children do not go away with the mistaken impression that all visits to the dentist involve drilling and pain (which was unfortunately my impression of the school dental clinic!)

Here’s a pic of him at the kids’ waiting area. We found a plush teeth-mould!

He was full of questions on the way to the dentist’s room, which amused the dental assistant. The brightly decorated dental treatment room was also very pleasant and inviting. Christian was amused and kept asking what each equipment was for, and the young dentist kindly indulged him by showing him the water spray, the suction tube and ‘air blower’. The screen above the reclining chair was tuned to Cartoon Network, and the various soft toy monkeys and other kiddy toys left lying around all helped to ease Christian into lying down and complying with the masked stranger’s requests.

My son was so talkative…when the dentist said as an ice breaker that they were going to count how many teeth he had, Christian promptly said “I have 20! And 2 more hidden at the back.. you cannot see it!” The dentist was amused but counted nonetheless and proclaimed “NO HOLES!”

I was happy to hear that, and yet a little sad to think that I spent $99 just to have the dentist tell me that my son’s teeth are perfectly fine. Haha. Alright, he did use some grainy toothpaste to help clean Christian’s teeth, but the visit was over in 15 minutes.

They certainly make good money..and I couldn’t help being the quintessential kiasu mum when I asked Christian whether he would like to be a dentist in future, “just so (he) can help others”.