The Toothless Wonder

When Aiden's right top front tooth came in, it had a little brown spot on it. Since my oldest son's tooth did the same thing, (and I was told it was only a discoloration on the tooth), I didn't think much of it. His pediatrician confirmed my lack of worry. Unlike Ryan's though (who has never even had a cavity), Aiden's started to decay and part of his tooth broke away.

In preparation for the dentist, I first took him with the rest of us for our six month cleaning. I let him sit in the big chair and then held him as our family dentist looked in his mouth. She said it could have happened from an antibiotic I took while pregnant, decalcification in the tooth before it even came in, or for no explainable reason, and referred us to a pediatric dentist.

practicing his "ah's" before the dentist comes in

After his quick visit, I talked to him for a couple weeks about the dentist. We'd look at pictures on the Internet, we'd practice by laying on the couch and saying "ahhhh", and then we'd look at more pictures (and when there was a picture of a little boy not opening his mouth, Aiden would tell him, "no, no! say ahhhh!") He was all ready today for our visit and he did WONDERFULLY.

He didn't want to sit in the mini chair by himself, so he sat on my lap and watched Chuggington above him. Everything the dentist asked Aiden to do, he did immediately. They even x-rayed his front teeth, which they told him to "bite down on it (the film) like a cracker and hold it tight with your teeth.", and he did it twice without me having to say a word.

We had two choices with the "boo-boo tooth": 1) cap it - which would've entailed scraping it out, filling it, possible root canal, then capping it, which meant SEDATION which could take up to an hour or 2) pull it using a little numbing gel and a small shot which would take a total of FIVE minutes.

The tooth fairy is coming a little early.

He sat in my lap. He couldn't see me. I held his hands in mine. I was reassured knowing that even though he couldn't see me, he could HEAR me. I was able to talk to him and COMFORT him during the whole five minute, which seemed like forever, process. and he did great. Definitely some tears, but he didn't fight it. Once again, so thankful for his cochlear implants and the gift they give. I couldn't imagine going through this without them.

and now we have,

our toothless wonder.

Of course we went for ice cream and got a balloon right after. I just pray this visit doesn't ruin the whole dental experience for our next visit, but he'll talk about the experience without a problem, which is definitely a good sign.