Surviving the dentist.

Today I took the four oldest kids to the dentist. I knew right from the beginning this would be challenging. One reason is two years ago we took the boys to the dentist and the way the exam rooms are set up is there are two dental chairs in the same room. The way they conduct things is to have two entirely different patients under examination at the same time (meaning a different family has children being examined in the same room as ours). This probably would have been ok but a girl who was about eight was being examined in the next chair over. This girl started screaming and fighting the dentist and all the dentist was doing was looking at her teeth.

Landon had been in the chair at the time and didn't seem to notice but I glanced over at Xander and saw his eyes go wide. He looked frantic with his eyes set on the girl in the chair. From there he began to look for an exit but before he could bolt it was his turn in the chair and boy did he fight. He had been fine the previous two times he'd gone so I was pretty confident the girl's reaction had quickly altered his opinion of the dentist. Ever since that incident Xander has been terrified to go to the dentist. He screams, fights and even bites the dentist. No amount of promise of reward or threat of punishment works.

With this history behind us I knew today would be challenging. I had been thinking about it since the little reminder cards appeared in our mailbox. I had given each of the kids their cards proclaiming they had gotten mail. Each of the cards had a picture of a different dog smiling on it. Xander is a dog lover so he immediately loved the card, that is until I told him it said "We haven't seen your smile in awhile. Please schedule your next check up as soon as possible." He scanned it quickly then handed it back to me "Nevermind then I don't want it anymore."
Back to today I was trying to come up with ways to get him to relax and I thought I'd get all wise. He loves Ronan. After he got done telling me he wasn't going to the dentist. I told him "It's Ronan's first trip to the dentist so you should be a big brother and show Ronan that the dentist is nothing to worry about." To which he replied "Can't Landon do that?" As we were heading out the door his dad gave him a quick talk and we were off.Above is Landon getting his teeth clean. Things were going great at this point.

They started with Landon and he did great for the cleaning and x-rays. Then came Xander's turn. He refused to put his legs down and wouldn't take his hands from his mouth so I had to sit his head in my lap and hold his arms down but somehow we managed to get through the cleaning. They decided not to do his x-rays since he was so spooked. We moved onto Jadzia and she sat wonderfully and opened her mouth wide for her cleaning. She did really well and so did Ronan he just sat there and got his teeth cleaned.

This was Xander before they came in. He was sitting in the chair so nicely it had given me high hopes he'd be fine.

Now the dentist came in and I was already dreading her looking over Xander's teeth. Landon went first. He had three cavities! Six months ago he'd had none. I was disappointed but I attribute it to his independent streak. He'd started wanting to brush his teeth all by himself and I had let him. Xander's turn and he fought hard. He clenched his jaw, bit and fought. Meanwhile Landon kept trying to turn off the lights and jump in that infamous, adjacent dental chair. He wanted to turn on all the equipment and seeing as I was occupied holding Xander all I could do was send him the mom look and tell him to sit down.

Xander was done and had two cavities which I believe is the same reason his first two cavities ever right after I start allowing him to brush his own teeth. Jadzia did great and her teeth were beautiful which confirmed my opinion because I brush her teeth still. I'm now back to brushing all of their teeth. I've gotten around their need for independence by giving them a go first then telling them mommy needs to double check the germs and I scrub those backs extra well. Ronan didn't have any cavaties either and he let the dentist look in his mouth with no problems. I was a little surprised because he's been teething and pretty cranky but he was a good boy.
Now Xander and Landon have to have their teeth filled but they get the white fillings and not those metal ones so you won't be able to tell they're there. This will be done on the 29th of this month. They will get Valium 30 to 40 minutes before and then they will be taken back and wrapped in these blanket type things. Their mouths will be numbed and their teeth filled. They will act sort of drugged for about six hours afterward and are to have no unsupervised play for the entire rest of the day.

Landon had Valium before when he smashed his face into the pavement from the top of a jungle gym. They had stitched his chin up and gave him Valium. He had insisted he was seeing clouds and shooting stars while we were inside. I had called and asked if hallucinations were normal and was told they can be. I'm completely prepared for the hallucinations that may accompany this whole event.

I was pretty done after the dentist so we came home and everyone got naps. The rest of the evening was rather uneventful. I have a couple of assignments due so this is all for now.