What a difference a smile can make

We finally found a dentist that we like! Yay!

Attempt 1 (20 months):
This guy was nice enough and took a moment to show Ellie his toys, but in the end she was still too scared to let him look in his mouth. It was a grown-up dentist office and filled with scary looking equipment. I later found out that he wasn't a pediatric dentist so I decided to try one of those out.

Attempt 2 (24 months):
I learned that just because a guy can call himself a pediatric dentist, does not mean he is good with children. Go figure. Even the "toy" room scared Ellie and the dentist was horrible. He came in already dressed with his scary face mask and gloves and then proceeded to only talk to me. I don't even think he said "Hi" to Ellie. She was scared of him, which was no surprise. The surprise came in when he did nothing, absolutely NOTHING to try to calm her down. He definitely had the attitude of "crying is normal for this age, so just ignore it." During his exam, I heard words of "open bite" and "over bite" but when he was done, he just got up and left. I asked the nurse if these were things I should be concerned about and she looked at me in confusion and said "I don't know." I ended up passing the doctor in the lobby on my way out and asked him about it. He gave me a mini-lecture about how sucking on Bun Bun was doing horrible things to Ellie's mouth and that she will most likely have to have major orthodontics to recover, if not surgery. Uh, ok... thanks for telling me. On the way out, Ellie only said "No dentist. No dentist." Poor thing.

Attempt 3 (2 years, 4 months):
Jackpot! This place rocked! They had a castle that Ellie was excited to play in as soon as she saw it. She even left me at the reception and wandered off by herself. Then they called us back to watch a movie about why we brush our teeth and go to see the dentist (again, it was in a castle setting - AWESOME!). Ellie liked the movie, but you could still tell she was scared.

Next came the exam room, which wasn't filled with adult equipment. Instead, yep you guessed right... castle stuff! The assistant showed Ellie her Minnie Mouse gloves and helped Ellie put some on her own hands. Then they played with masks for a while and Ellie turned to me and said "Luke, I your fawder!"

There was a princess doll on the exam table and the assistant showed Ellie how she uses a mirror to count the teeth in princess' mouth. She asked Ellie to help her count. Then she asked Ellie how many teeth she has. Ellie said, "Ummm... two!"

Then came the box of treats. Ellie had a hard time picking a toy out and eventually decided on a fish. The three of us continued to play with our dentist masks and gloves until the doctor came in.

Right off the bat, she got down to Ellie's level and started talking to her and saying how she was a wonderful little girl and so pretty. The dentist did an exam on Mr. Bear's mouth and Mr. Bear got a bracelet for doing so well.

Here comes the surprise... Then Ellie exclaimed "My turn!" She laid on the table and put her sunglasses on and opened her mouth for the dentist. The dentist constantly rewarded Ellie with compliments about how special she was and how she was the dentist's most favorite patient.

The dentist was able to do a full exam and even cleaned Ellie's teeth! Ellie sat perfectly still the whole time. She would close her mouth only to smile after receiving another compliment from the nice dentist.

After the exam, Ellie got ANOTHER prize for being so good. She got two more bracelets, hugged the dentist and said "dank tu!"

Both the dentist and the assistant commented on how it's not common for a two year old to sit so still during an exam and that she was fantastic. Seriously, I attribute that ALL to the fact that they gave her extra attention. It wasn't even attention that required any more time or effort on their part (we were out of there in 45 minutes, which was the same as the previous places), but it made a world of difference. They talked **TO** Ellie and asked **HER** to participate.

Wow. Wow, I say. Wow. It was the completely opposite experience than the previous place. Wow. No tears for Ellie. No tears for Mommy. 3 bracelets and one fish worth of prizes and Ellie didn't want to leave!

And for those who are wondering about the horrible damage that Bun Bun caused... This dentist said that studies show that if a child stops a bad habit (sucking his thumb, pacifier or stuffed animal) by the time their permanent teeth start to grow, then they will typically grow in according to what their genetics would have done in the first place. She said that it's great that Ellie is not sucking on Bun Bun anymore, but it was nice to hear that we weren't horrible parents for letting it go this long.

So yay! What a relief that was.

UPDATE: (Thanks, Spleeness for the good idea) The dentist that we love is called Chilrden's Dentistry in Westminster. The dentist's name is Dr. Nelle Barr and I will say it again... the entire experience was a fantastic surprise.