A Trip To The Dentist

Gage and Landen have been to two different pediatric dentists. I haven't been really happy with either one of them. My sister Brandy has always taken her kids to dentists that like to see kids at age 1 while mine don't like to start regular checkups until age 3. I know you aren't going to get much of an exam until age 3, but since I have always had insurance I wanted someone who would start at least getting my children used to checkups so they would be pros by the time they were 3. Well, I recently took my kids to Atlantis Dental in Syracuse and I have finally found my dentist! They said they like to start seeing kids 6 months after they get their first tooth.

I took Landen and Tanner first and then Gage a week later. I was worried about Tanner getting an exam, but I was determined. I had Landen go first and made Tanner watch Landen get his teeth cleaned. Landen did great. No cavities. We just need to work on flossing. I'm not very good at doing that.

Tanner was next and was a little apprehensive. He didn't want to sit on the chair so I sat down first and Tanner sat on my lap. They were so cute with Tanner. They spent time showing Tanner how the spin brush "tickled" on my finger and then his. After doing that, they were able to clean his whole mouth and take x-rays! The dentist then took a look. He said everything looked good, but asked if he still took a binky. I have been holding onto the binky way longer than I did with Gage. I only use it for naps and bedtime because Tanner goes to bed so easily with it. The dentist said it was affecting his bite and I should try to break the habit. He said they had a bottle of nasty tasting stuff I could dip his binkies in so I wouldn't have to go buy a bottle. Nice huh? So when I went back today for Gage's appointment, I took all of Tanner's binkies and painted the yucky liquid on them. We will see how it works tonight. Tanner also has a big gap between his two front teeth. The dentist said there is a piece of his gums that will need to be clipped at some point. He said it could wait until sometime in the future when he might need another procedure so they could be done at the same time.

Gage's teeth looked good. No cavities. However, the dentist said he is a little behind on losing his teeth. Gage has only lost his two bottom front teeth and the two beside those were pulled to make room for the first two to come up. The two that were pulled don't have any room for his permanent teeth to break through and his top teeth should have been out by now. He said he would wait and see what happens within the next 6 months before he starts pulling more teeth. I asked about kids getting braces earlier now a days and he said Gage would probably be a good candidate for that. We will see what the next 6 months brings. Hopefully the tooth fairy will make a few appearances.