Carter's Dentist Appointment

Today Carter had his scheduled concious sedation to have his cavity filled. We didn't tell him where we were going. We only said he was getting to have a "mommy-daddy" day which he thought was way cooler than going to daycare. We arrived at the dentist office and right away he had to go to the bathroom. In the stall he asked me if there were dentists here. I said I think so. He was still perfectly fine.

The nurse came to call us back to get his weight. As soon as he saw kids in chairs and heard the suction noise he freaked out and stood behind my leg and would not go near the scale. I ended up having to hold him and weigh with him and without him to get his weight by subtracting the two. He was bawling.

We went back and the nurse tried to reward him with a sticker for each step, listening to his heart, putting the clip on his finger to get his pulse, taking his blood pressure. He was just crying as hard as he could in my lap the whole time. She asked if he'd had a traumatic experience and I told her no, we've never been able to even get him to sit in the chair.

He did calm down long enough to ask for a tissue. I gave him the medicine via syringe. I told him "maybe it tastes like bubblegum" but found out it actually tastes horrible. We then went out to the lobby and waited about 10 minutes for him to get loopy. It was funny. He would turn and look at something and then smile and giggle as if he was seeing something that wasn't there.

They took him back and said he did great. They took xrays and said he didn't have any other problems. They cleaned his teeth and filled the cavity. Voila done. While we were waiting Kevin told me this is exactly how he was and that one time a doctor sent them to the ER to get his temperature taken because he wouldn't open his mouth. Like father like son I guess.

He felt like he weighed a ton of bricks. I couldn't even carry him to the car. They gave him a slushy when he was done and drank that the whole way home. I think he was starving from not being able to eat anything since dinner the night before.

I don't think he remembers anything which is good. I had a hard time getting him to stay still. We watched Ice Age 3 for awhile but then he wanted to go up and down the stairs and even jump on the trampoline and he was still wobbly and I was afraid we would end up going to the ER for stitches.

What did he say about it later? "The medicine did NOT taste like bubblegum mommy."

Next appointment is December and hopefully he will sit in the chair to have a normal cleaning and we won't have to do sedation again. Cause that part is not covered by insurance of course.