First Trip to the Dentist!

Gwen had her first visit to the dentist 9/1! She met with our current dentist's wife who isn't technically a pediatric dentist, but is good with children. Gwen got a little freaked out while we waited since she could hear the loud noises of the patient before us getting his teeth cleaned. She has been to the office before; she came with us our appointment last month when we took turns having our teeth cleaned. When it was Gwen's turn she sat on my lap on the exam chair and let the dentist look in her mouth and tolerated a brief cleaning with cherry toothpaste, and brisk application of strawberry fluoride. There were some tears and Gwen said, "All done- tickles." But apparently it tickled in a bad way. The dentist noted that she has stains in the crevices of her back bottom molars- apparently her crevices are very deep. She said that to prevent them from turning into cavities to keep sweets (including raisins and dried fruit) to one sitting, rather than grazing, since sweets change the PH of your mouth allowing bad bacteria to breed- if I understood her correctly ;-) And then when they are limited to one sitting you can brush afterward. Gwen may have to get sealants when she is a bit older to protect her teeth from cavities- even though they are baby teeth, she will have them for a while. The dentist also said she tends to have more successful visits with children closer to age 3, but we are going back in 6 months for a check up. Between now and then we are going to work on brushing more frequently and practicing spitting so she can start using real toothpaste instead of the baby toothpaste which as far as I can tell is just a tasty gel.