Clean Teeth for Katelynn

Today was Katelynn's very first dentist appointment ever. I have been putting off taking her in for almost a year now as I have dreaded the day thinking she was going to have a hard time with it. Some days I have to chase her around our own house to brush her teeth so I thought a stranger asking her to open her mouth and put loud tools inside would be a nightmare (remember this is the child who was always afraid of the vacuum and just now isn't afraid of a lawnmower). However, as always, Katelynn managed to shock me and do a really great job at her first appointment!

We have been prepping her for this for months now. We started reading the Little Critter's Trip to the Dentist book at bedtime and talked about going to the dentist. I have found this works best for preparing Katelynn for something- talking to her a lot about it and reading stories about it. When today came, she was actually pretty excited to go, but I still thought she would be really shy and/or get upset once we arrived.

The nurse called her back and Katelynn jumped up to go. I followed them. The nurse/dental hygienist started asking Katelynn questions, and I was shocked at how well she was doing answering all of them. She wasn't a bit shy, and she was saying all the right answers. They probably think we prepped her on how to answer the questions, especially when they asked her, "Do you brush your teeth?" And Katelynn responded, "I brush my teeth EVERYDAY." Although it's very true that she does in fact brush everyday, I thought it was hysterical that she said it that way. I am sure they think I prompted her on that one! Katelynn layed back and let the hygientist work on her teeth without any hesitation. I was so proud!

When the dentist walked in, it was a different story though. For some reason she got very shy when he arrived and she wouldn't talk to him at all. It took him finishing his evaluation before she must have realized he wasn't going to do anything to hurt her and then she opened back up. She got a thumbs up for how well we are taking care of her teeth and she goes back in six months!

This is a little video I took when we got home of her account of the visit. She was telling her daddy all about it all on her own on the phone, but once we got home she didn't just go on and on about it to the camera so I had to ask her some questions.

Disclosure: I tried retaking this video because she picks her nose in this video. I was hoping to not have to share that part with you all, but she didn't want to sit and talk to the camera after this video so you get to see the embarrassing new habit my two-year old has picked up that I'm trying to get her to stop doing :)