Keilah's first dentist appointment

Keilah had her first trip to the dentist today!

We chose to take her to a pediatric dentist instead of to the regular family dentist. I figured that someone who was specially trained to work with kids would be better for Keilah since she has a difficult time sitting still and listening sometimes.

The office was fantastic. There were colorful murals on all the walls. There were tvs everywhere, even in the ceiling. The doctor and staff were so friendly. They explained all the tools to Keilah before they used them and even let her help by holding the little mirror. I was completely shocked because Keilah did AWESOME! She sat still, opened her mouth and let the dentist and hygenist work in there without trying to squirm away. They took x-rays, inspected her teeth, polished them, and put flouride on them. She was so amazing! The hygenist said that they normally use a regular toothbrush on kids Keilah's age because they are usually afraid of the polisher. Since we use the sonicare toothbrush on Keilah daily, we decided to try the polisher and Keilah did awesome!

I had a couple of concerns that the dentist addressed. Keilah has some pretty bad staining on her teeth. It was pretty embarassing because it looked as if we did not brush her teeth. Apparently the staining is caused by too much iron in her vitamins. They polished the stains off and we are getting new iron-free vitamins. My second concern was about her thumbsucking. Keilah does have an overbite from the thumbsucking. Because of her age the doctor said it will be difficult to get her to stop. She said the best thing to do is praise her and give her incentive for not sucking her thumb. We will be getting a new sticker chart and hopefully we can get her to stop before she turns 4 years old. The last thing the doctor mentioned was that Keilah has a thick upper frenum which is causing the large gap between the top two front teeth. She will continue to have a large gap even when her permanent teeth come in. We will probably end up doing an upper frenotomy in a couple years before she gets her permanent teeth in order to try and close that gap.