First Trip to the Dentist!

Tomorrow went to the dentist for the first time last week. Our licensing agency had told us she did not have to go to the dentist formally until she was three, but then we got a letter from the County saying she had to have an appointment scheduled by February 20. I found out that was because her sister Monee's teeth are rotting out of her head. Several have had to be pulled.

Our family dentist had looked at Tomorrow's gums and then teeth for me a couple of times, but he does not accept Medicaid-- so until she is adopted and on our insurance, she will have to go elsewhere for dental care. It was a real challenge to find a dentist that would see patients under the age of five *and* that took Medicaid, but I finally found Comfort Kids through Comfort Dental. They have the right equipment for children, kid-friendly offices, and offer evening and weekend appointments. Who knows, we may even end up going there with our whole family.

So Mike took Tomorrow to the dentist bright and early on a Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. and he said she was a perfect angel. She did not want to get into the dentist's chair (Mike thinks she was afraid of the lights and other equipment) but they just said that a lot of kids are that way, and had a way to get around it: she sat on Daddy's lap and then laid back into the lap of the dentist for the exam. We were very pleased that she did not have any cavities, and the dentist wrote on the evaluation form for the County: "Parents have a good understanding of oral hygiene." That's always nice, after the wrangling of kids at teeth-brushing time! We are religious about brushing teeth in our home, and kids who do not want to brush their teeth get held by one parent while the other parent brushes their teeth for them (after we have exhausted positive techniques and downright bribes of course). It turns out that good dental hygiene and oral health have a lot to do with your general health, so we take it very seriously around here!