A New Dentist and Some Fillings

For those of you who don't know, Elina frequently visits the dentist office. Unfortunately, she has inherited B's rotten teeth. Hence, Elina already has 2 silver crowns on 2 of her bottom molars. Yikes!

So began my search to find a pediatric dentist that I love. Since we will be visiting the office quite often, I figured I should really love this person. The pediatric dentist we were previously going to was good. She didn't "wow" me or anything. I didn't think she was particularly great with children...she was just fine. She never really explained much to me unless I asked questions, but I didn't think anything of it.

Then I did some research to find a better pediatric dentist...that's when I found Dr. Bob. He is absolutely wonderful! He's totally corny because he dresses up in a different kids' costume every day and he wears this funny red-necky visor that has fake, highlighted, spiky hair on the top of it. His staff is really nice and they do lots of different things during your visits. First they took 4 pictures of Elina's teeth and mouth and then they made it into a word document with Elina's name and the date. They give you one of these during every visit so you can keep it in a scrapbook and document it. On our first visit, they took a picture of Elina with Dr. Bob and put a label on it that said, "My first visit." So cute!

But honestly, the thing I loved the most was how much time Dr. Bob spent with us. He's awesome with both the kids and the parents. He explained everything to me...the xrays, her exam, her adult teeth. It was all stuff I had never heard before.

Of course no visit is complete without mentioning cavities. It turned out that Elina had 2 cavities between her top molars. The dentist said that it was probably due to imperfect enamel on her baby teeth since Elina doesn't drink soda or juice and she doesn't eat lots of candy.

Yesterday we went in for Elina's fillings and the dentist found one more cavity on the top between some molars. Yikes! Elina didn't particularly enjoy the whole experience of getting the fillings. I had to give her demerol beforehand (which she didn't like). Then she had to wear this nose mask thing for the nitrous gas (it's hot pink because it's bubble gum flavored). Plus, she had to wear sunglasses so the dentist light didn't bother her eyes. The good part was that they gave her headphones to listen to audiobooks. Well, that was supposed to be the good part. Elina, being our Elina, didn't mention that she couldn't hear anything through the headphones until the entire procedure was FINISHED!! It turned out that the nano they were using ran out of batteries, but the dentist didn't know because she assumed Elina would say something if there were problems. Nope, not our Elina. So during the entire uncomfortable procedure, Elina just listened to the soothing sounds of the dental instruments. How awful! I felt so badly about it because I know it wasn't a pleasant experience. I should have asked her if she could hear the story before they started, but I had assumed the same thing the dentist did. Now I know better.

At the end, though, Elina got to pick some cool prizes from the treasure box...a glittery bracelet, a butterfly ring, and some cupcake lip gloss. A pretty good ending to another dentist visit.