Time for Teeth!

Ella absolutely LOVES to brush her teeth. Sometimes, we brush up to 5 times a day! When she got her first tooth, I called the pediatric dentist and asked him when we needed to come in. He said that unless there was a problem, he didn't need to see her until she was 3. Well, in early December, I was helping Ella brush her teeth for what seemed like the 18th time that day and noticed some spots on her front teeth. I was absoltely appalled! I didn't understand how my 17-month-old could possibly have cavitites, especially when we are so diligent about brushing!

I called the dentist and made an appointment. In the mean time, I had to take Dean to his denstist appointment and since they go to the same guy, I just had him take a peek in Ella's mouth while we were there. He assured me that the spots were NOT cavities. He said that they were just the natural pits in her enamel and to bring her back for her appointment in January and we would talk about it.

Fast forward to today: We went back with the dentist and he did just a little lap exam of Ella's teeth. Ella was a little nervoud at first when the dentist came in with his tools. I think she thought she was getting a shot. But, he showed her what they were and talked to her about it and she just opened right up and let him look!
confirmed that she didn't have cavities but that those pits could very easily become cavities if we were lax in our brushing habits. Fortunately, Ella is anything but lax in her brushing habits! She will sometimes walk into the bathroom and point up to where her toothbrush and toothpaste are and yell "teeth" until we go help her brush. Aunt Laura would be proud!

After some discussion with the dentist, we decided that we would varnish her teeth that had the pits in the enamel to help prevent cavities. Basically, he went in and cleaned out the pits really well and then applied some sort of super-flouride treatment to help strengthen the weak spots in her enamel. This is where she got mad. She didn't like that thing spraying air and water in her mouth and the flouride wasn't particularly tasty. That being said though, she did great! She yelled at him a little but there were no tears and it was over before she really had a chance to get too upset.

She wasn't the happiest of campers, but all in all, it wasn't that bad taking an 18-month-old to the dentist. Dr. Moody gave a clean bill of health and we will go back in 6 months for her next check-up!