Earlier in the summer we had to cancel Wesley's regularly scheduled dentist appointment due to some conflict. The hygienist at our dentist's office is actually the mom of Wesley's best buddy and a good friend of ours so she just put us on the call list for cancellations. She called late in the afternoon yesterday to see if this morning would be a good time for us. Since we're having a fairly laid back-no plans sort of week, I said "Sure!" And then she mentioned that it was time to put sealants on Wesley's 6 year molars. Da, da, dum. Eeeek!
This is the very procedure that turned Parker from a mildly apprehensive dental patient into a white-knuckled, stomach-churning, eyes-brimming-with-tears dental patient. Great.
But this is at a new office with new people. We switched dentists after that experience in order to convince Parker that opening his mouth and allowing someone with instruments to peer in would be okay. He chose Mrs. M. because he is comfortable with her and it's been good so far. I was hoping our luck would hold. I didn't even bother telling Wesley about the sealants for fear that Parker would freak him out with horror stories. Brothers do things like that, you know.
Once she started the procedure, post-cleaning, I knew we were in for a bit of a rough road. The teeth have to be kept very dry so that the sealant will adhere properly. That means packing some cotton stuff in your mouth and keeping the suction going...not really very comfy. Then she put the first stuff on his tooth and I saw "the look". You know the one. It's the one that says, "I'm doing everything I can to suppress the gagging feeling in my throat but it isn't working." Uh-oh. I'd already mentioned to Mrs. M. that Wesley has a particularly strong gag response and apparently it was kicking in. Fab-u-lous.
We went into super-efficient mode and worked to calm him down. I talked to him and helped her juggle tools. She worked to keep all the stuff cleared out of his mouth so he wouldn't taste it. And I jabbered on to keep his mind occupied (I'm good at that).
Part of the procedure is shining a bright blue light (don't ask me the technical term) on the tooth to harden the sealant and that makes the whole mouth glow bright blue. Well, that gave me a bright idea of something to talk about.
Parker came home from camp recently with a Flashing Mouth thing that you stick in your mouth and click a tiny button and it lights up your whole mouth wildly with bright flashing lights. Wacko! It's exactly the sort of thing that 8 and 10 year old boys really think is awesome! So I told Wesley that if he could calm down and make it through the sealants, we'd find one online and order one for him, too.
Just so you can get the full idea:
Fortunately, everything went well and we now have 4 sealed molars. Yippee! And I have ordered a Flashing Mouth for Wesley. And one for his buddy C., too.
Here is Wesley, with sealed teeth, and our guinea pig, Oreo, enjoying some carrots.
