Eli's 1st Trip to the Dentist

A few days ago, Eli went for his very first dentist's visit. For a couple of days before we'd been talking about the dentist with Eli to prepare him for his visit. We assured him that he was a nice man and all he wanted to do was look at Eli's teeth and count them. I was a little nervous about taking him, because I'd heard horror stories of kids kicking and screaming on their first visit. I definitely didn't want that. I picked him up from Mrs. G's house and asked him where we were going. He told me we were going to the dentist. I asked him what the dentist was going to do and he happily replied, "Coun my teef!" I was very happy that he seemed excited about it, so we drove to Dr. Lee's office for his first visit.

When we got there, Mrs. Vickie had me fill out all the necessary paperwork. I chuckled at one of the questions..."Would you like to keep all your teeth rather than replace them with dentures?" Ummm, yeah that's the plan :) While I was doing that, Eli enjoyed playing with the puzzles they had there. He REALLY enjoyed the mix and match bear puzzle they had where he got to change outfits on this bear.



Soon Mrs. Torri called him to the back so she could clean his teeth. He climbed into the chair without a moments hesitation and settled back like he'd been doing this all his life. I was super impressed with him at this point. Mrs. Torri showed him all her special tools and explained every step of the cleaning process to him. I knew that if he was going to have a breakdown this would be the time it would happen, but it never did! He let her clean his teeth like a pro! The only time he got a little nervous was when she pulled out the water and the little vacuum thingy. He wanted me to sit with him when he saw those, but Mrs. Torri let him play with them for a little bit and he was over his fear. He looked at me and said, "I a big boy, Mama!" I asked if that meant he wanted me to get out of the chair with him and he replied, "Uh-huh!" Wow! My little boy is getting too big :(








Mrs. Torri finished cleaning his teeth and then Eli got to pick out his surprise. He got a timer, some new toothpaste, and a new toothbrush. He was very excited. Mrs. Torri left to go get Dr. Lee, and while we were waiting for him, Daddy stopped by to see his little man! Eli was so excited! He showed his Daddy everything he'd gotten for being such a big boy. Daddy had to leave to go back to work, but Mrs. Loyce came in when Daddy left and entertained Eli by showing him how the chair was magical and could go up and down. Eli LOVED that!




Dr. Lee came in next. He's such a great dentist and always makes visits fun. Plus, he has two young kids of his own, so he knows how to talk to kids and make them feel relaxed. Dr. Lee looked at Eli's teeth and counted them. Eli helped him with this part. I found out that Eli can now count to 13 on his own :) He's getting so smart. Dr. Lee said his teeth and his bite looked great! He said to keep doing what we're doing. I was so thrilled for a great report, but more importantly I was ECSTATIC over the fact that Eli had done so well!



We left the room and Zue-Zue was waiting for us. She'd heard about the visit from Daddy and drove over to see Eli since her office was just a block away from the dentist's. We were all so happy for a wonderful report!