Elle's Trip to the Dentist...

Enjoying a good read while waiting...

No fear - such a good little patient.

Dr. Call and his staff are great with kids.
Three major cavities!!!! Aaaahhh!!!

I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out how my 3-year old little girl has three cavities!!! Ryleigh has had zero cavities, to date. What have I done wrong? I don't let her eat sugar all day long, she doesn't drink soda or juice very often. Could it be those darn fruit leathers???

Because of scheduling on both ends it has taken three weeks to get in to fix those poor teeth. Elle was a champ. They put her laughing gas mask on, and then when they gave her the Novocaine shots she didn't even flinch. However, once Dr. Call started the drilling, things began to go awry...

Elle started crying because of the pain (it was so heart breaking to see the tears streaming down her poor little face, covered by the oxygen mask). Dr. Call gave her another shot to numb the pain, and then once it kicked in he gave the drilling another try. He had barely even touched her when she started crying again. Apparently, three years old is still too young to be awake for all that. So, the staff called the Pediatric Dentist that is twenty minutes closer to home and they had him send us right over. Since she was still very numb they would be able to work on her. As we headed over, immediately Elle fell asleep in the car. Great, now I have to wake her and expose her to more trauma.

Once there, the staff got us right in to start with the x-rays and exam. It turns out that Elle is more prone to cavities because of deep pitts/grooves in her teeth and soft enamel. Their guess is that the medication I was on during my pregnancy kept her teeth from forming properly in utero. That explains everything!!!

Since the laughing gas procedure didn't go over so well with Elle, the Pediatric Dentist needed to sedate her. Guess what? You have to have an empty belly, which hers was not. They wanted to have her come back the next day, but we were leaving town that afternoon. So, they sent us home....for a full week. Poor little Elle - all numbed up and no place to go.

Elle trying to smile 4 hours after the Novocaine.

We are back from vacation and it has been 1 week since we were turned away from the dentist - let's try this again. Just as we are walking out the door Elle grabs 1/2 a slice of bread and shoves it into her mouth! She is supposed to have an empty belly, but I took her to her appointment anyway hoping they could still work on her. But alas, they sent us home, AGAIN! Poor Elle, she has been in so much pain during all of this. She could hardly eat, and cried while getting her teeth brushed, and is pretty much just flat out cranky all day long.

The next day we were able to make it to the dentist without sneaking any food, thank goodness. If I had known how the "sleepy juice" would affect Elle, I would have taken video. It was so unbelievably comical. Elle was sitting on my lap while I read a book to her waiting for the "sleepy juice" to kick in. Then, all of a sudden it happened. She went into slow-motion mode. Her speech was slurred, she wasn't making any sense and was seeing things that weren't there. I was laughing uncontrollably in a waiting room full of people - it was undoubtedly the funniest thing I have EVER seen.

So, after all the drama, weeks of pain and a cranky girl she was finally all fixed up and I had my happy Elle back. Hopefully, the next trip to the dentist will be a boring one...