Question:
Let me know a dental filling for my child. I think I am more nervous about
the whole thing than my daughter is. In fact, she had already asked
her friends about this and she feels less frighten about going to have
a filling.
From now on I brush her teeth every day and have her rinse with mouth wash.
Answer:
Last week I took my 2 daughters to the dentist. For Traci (4.9)
it was for a scheduled checkup. For Trina (2.8) it was just to see
because the next time would be for real. Trina climbed up on the chair
(she looks so small in that thing!!) and the dentist poked around a bit
and ....found a cavity!!!! I nearly died!
Today we went to get the filling. I had told her that there would be a
needle (but that only hurts for a sec, right? Right!) and that the
dentist was going to fill a hole in her tooth. I was more nervous because
of the freezing needle....didn't know how i would react to her being in
that pain, even for a moment.
She did great!!! NO freezing She just laid back and let him do it
all. I can really see how we parents can portray going to the dentist in
a bad light. Kids don't know to be uncomfortable and waiting for the
pain, etc.
My younger son has a few fillings although he is only 6--we call
them "stars" and they have to be polished a lot. They've never been called
"fillings" to him, so when other kids talk about fillings, he doesn't
associate the stories of pain with what happened in his mouth.
Something else to remember that the dentist told me, when this same child who
had been drilled without novocaine and had several checkups since,
unexpectedly freaked at a regular checkup (half an hour of extreme fright,
crying, inability to self-calm) is that sometimes kids just have an off day.
He (the dentist) sees it all the time, and speculates that somebody at school
told a scary story about a dentist visit, or otherwise escalated a small
apprehension or anxiety. He just had us reschedule the visit (after a
reasonable attempt to talk to my son and show him his good nature) and sure
enough, the next time we came in my son confidently sauntered to the chair,
had x-rays taken, let the hygienist clean his teeth, and let the dentist check
him out with no problems at all.
