Annalyn's Dentist Visit

A couple weeks ago Annalyn went to the dentist. We thought she had chipped her tooth when she was playing with a friend, that she was just her usual tough self and didn't really cry about the pain. Turns out, she had two tiny cavities on her two front teeth.

The initial visit with the pediatric dentist was pretty traumatizing for her and she clearly was distraught for the rest of the day. So knowing that the actual fillings would be much worse, I arranged to leave work to go help Rachel with holding her down.

She did fine in the lobby, since she saw other kids there coming out of the dentist's happy and excited. It wasn't until we went back and she saw the chair that she remembered the place. She clung to mommy as if she knew she would never come back, at least as the same person. It took Rachel holding her knees to keep her legs down, me holding her wrists and hips together, and an assistant holding her head to keep her still enough for the dentist and another assistant to do the actual work of filling the cavities. Poor thing!

But he was a patient, fantastic dentist, and the whole thing was done in under 20 minutes - though to Annalyn I'm sure it felt more like several hours. Near the end they had to set a clamp in her mouth just  wide enough to keep her from biting his fingers over and over again. It made it hard to hear what it was she then started trying to say, but I had my guess. Turns out I was right. When everything was done and the clamp came out, she was saying, "Up! Up!" She wanted out of the chair so badly! And when I held her in my arms afterward she was clinging so tightly, I never felt so needed by her.

It was a simple procedure, two tiny cavities was all, but if course for a two-year-old, she thought she was going to her grave. She got a couple of free toys out of it though, one from the dentist and one from us, and then we topped it all off with her favorite fries from Arby's. By the end of lunch, she was giggling again!