Delilah Goes to The Dentist

This week Delilah had her first-ever appointment with the dentist. I had originally thought that babies didn’t go to the dentist until they were two years old, but last week we got a call from the dentist’s office inviting her to come in. They said they were doing special appointments for children ages 1-5 to help them feel more comfortable with going to the dentist. It sounded like a great idea to me, so scheduled her an appointment.

With Delilah now having 8 of her front teeth and her first set of molars coming in, good teeth brushing habits have been something we’ve been working on. As of right now, Delilah loves brushing her teeth. At night, I always brush her teeth when I give her a bath. For one, it keeps me from getting distracted while we’re getting ready for bed, and two, she’s really happy in the bath so she’s really receptive to getting her teeth brushed. Sometimes she even points to her toothbrush or toothpaste on the shelf to tell me when it’s time to brush.

Like most toddlers, Delilah is very hands-on when it comes to almost everything. She wants to do everything herself, but with teeth brushing, I want to make sure her teeth are getting clean while still letting her learn how to do it independently. While she’s still learning, I like to go in first and do a good brush on her teeth first, and then I usually hand her the toothbrush so she can practice for herself a bit. Now that she knows that I’m going to let her have the toothbrush when I’m done, it’s helped her be open to me brushing her teeth.

Since we were only going for a checkup and not an actual procedure the appointment was very quick. I filled out a little bit of paperwork and then they took us right back. The dental hygienist had me sit in the chair with my knees facing her and then she had me lay Delilah across both our laps so she could look at her teeth. Delilah didn’t like this part but the dental hygienist was quick.

After the dentist looked at her teeth the appointment was for the most part over. We did take a while after to just talk about some good dental hygiene practices as Delilah grows. While she said it was a good thing that we got Delilah drinking her milk from sippy cups rather than bottles, she told me that drinking milk from a sippy cup clean still be damaging to her teeth, if she of walking around with a sippy cup of milk during the day. She told me to try and stick to mealtimes only when I give her the milk so that the natural sugars in the milk aren’t washing over her teeth constantly throughout the day.

We also talked a lot about the foods Delilah eats and trying to find some good protein-filled snacks for Delilah. It was a good talk to have considering we were going to the grocery store after her appointment! She also told me that with Delilah’s first molars coming in we need to be really careful about keeping them clean. She warned me that a lot of children’s snacks get stuck back there, which I think I recall my mom telling me something like that about goldfish crackers before. Even though the appointment was short it felt good to be proactive with Delilah’s dental care and I was really glad we went. Plus, Delilah got a new toothbrush for going and that made her very happy!