adventures with mr. slurpee

i've been meaning to post this for a while now as tony's first visit to the dentist was at the end of january...where has the month of february gone already? anyway...

tony has been eagerly anticipating his visit to the dentist since his pediatrician at his 3-year well visit said that now is the time. he was on me to make the appointment, and me being me, procrastinated and when i finally did, was told the dentist i was taking him to see was out on maternity, so i made the first appointment available after her return. well, thank goodness his excitement hadn't worn off til the visit actually came around.

let me just start by saying, i will never go back to that dentist office again, but it wasn't because he didn't like it or didn't do well...it just wasn't the "experience" i expected when i made the appointment with a pediatric dentist. ok, the place actually scared me...just looking at the place scared me. misspelled handmade signs telling you to turn off your "sell phones"...and that was the english...i can only assume the ones written in spanish were spelled correctly. it was dimly lit and i'm not sure if it was that in combination with the [dirty] shag carpet or "mood" music that made me feel like i was walking onto the set of a porn movie rather than a pediatric dental office, but needless to say...all of that combined with the fact that the dr. barely spoke english and didn't say 1 word other than "open" to anthony made that our first and last visit there!

but we were there, and i didn't want to upset him, so we hung tight...enjoyed the "cultural experience" and waited our turn in the love nest...i mean, waiting room...amidst the screams of a small child having their teeth pulled with no anesthesia...yeah, that was fun watching all color from my child's face drain at that sound...but he was still so excited. yeah, weird, i know.

we headed back and the very nice assistant got anthony set up for his x-rays...

doesn't look as excited in these pics (sorry, i took them with my phone)...but trust me, he was!

here he is biting down on the cotton to keep his teeth apart for the x-ray

here he is holding mr. slurpee (he thought that thing was hilarious...and asked if we could take it home with us), waiting for ms. personality...err, i mean the dr. to come in

and here he is in the car (i had to get the he!! out of there), showing off the finished product...his nice clean teefers...no cavities (hopefully he'll continue with mama's teeth history...knock on wood for both of us)!

we already have another dentist all lined up for his next visit in 6 months. i already feel much better about this one as it's been recommended to me by no less than 1/2 a dozen people already!