I didn't know what Abby's reaction would be when I told her we were going, so I didn't say anything about it until last night. Then, after lunch, we played dentist for a bit so we could talk about what would happen. I put her in the recliner and poked her teeth a bit, "scraped" them with the end of her toothbrush, brushed her teeth while making that really annoying whining sound dentists' toothbrushes always make, and introduced her to floss. (Yes, shame on me, I've never flossed her teeth. But seeing as it's only been in the last few months that she's allowed me to brush her teeth regularly without serious meltdowns, flossing has always seemed as an absolute impossibility. Turns out she's pretty okay with it--then again, you could drive a Beetle through the gaps between her baby teeth.) Of course, I let her play dentist too. Ever let a three-year-old brush and floss your teeth? Interesting.
When we got to the office, I was thrilled to see we were the only patients there. The receptionist greeted Abby by name. The hygeinist commented on Abby's ballet shoes (purchased this morning for her first ballet class tomorrow, and she refused to take them off before we left) and told Abby about her daughter that takes ballet classes, too, which impressed Abby. She let Abby pick a new toothbrush first, then gave her a goody bag of toothpaste and floss. I sort of freaked when we went back to the room for the exam; they don't have chairs, they have beds, and I knew Abby would not be cool with lying down. But Jill (the hygeinist) told her she could lie down and watch the movie playing on the ceiling (Finding Nemo, which scares the pants of Abby, unfortunately) or just sit on the bed, and said I could sit there too. So what's what we did.
Jill let Abby touch every tool before putting it near her mouth, and also tapped each one on her hand and then cheek. She only had to scrape in a couple places, and said there were no cavities (thank you, God!!). The cleaning went quick and the tooth "brush" (which was actually a little rubber cup and not a brush at all) hardly made any noise, which is good since Abby is definitely sensitive to noise. When she was done Dr. Jon came and did his thing, and even though he used the same tools and did the same sorts of thing Jill had done, he still went through the routine of letting Abby touch each one first and then tap them on her hand. I was really impressed by that. He said her teeth looked great, minus the obvious splaying of her upper teeth on the right side where she cheats her paci when talking around it. He showed me the trophies they make for kids when they stop sucking their thumbs or give up pacis--they actually make an impression of them and put them on a little trophy with the kid's name on it!
We were in and out in half an hour and Abby was completely unfazed by the whole thing. I was so stunned and relieved I very nearly cried.
We started actively trying to phase out the paci a couple days ago by establishing 2 "paci zones" where she is allowed to use her paci whenever she wants to: her bed and the kitchen table. Neither one is uncomfortable, but neither one allows her to continue to interact with toys or TV or, in most cases, other people. There have been a few instances of, "But I want to watch TV, too!" and "Well, you need to decide which one you want to do more: watch TV or use your paci." With an exaggerated sigh, she'll usually slap it back on the table and stomp back to the sofa (or wherever) but once she did stay over in the kitchen, though she went and sat in the corner for some reason. My goal is to have her off of it during the day by the end of the year. She always loses it eventually during the night, so I don't mind if she continues to use it to go to sleep, since it won't stay in there long once she's out. After doing all the evaluation paperwork for PJ, I realized that I think Abby also has some sensory issues, though I think she's the opposite of PJ--rather than being and under-responder, Abby is an over-responder, and has some anxiety with it, too. Soothing habits like paci-sucking and sticking her hand down my shirt are going to take a LONG time to break completely, because a kid with those kinds of issues just needs them longer. And that's okay. She won't be 10 and still doing them, so who cares how long it takes.
Tomorrow we start ballet, and again I'm nervous. How is she going to be taking instruction from a stranger without me moving in to encourage her to follow directions or make her do whatever it is she needs to do? How will she react to me having to sit against the wall and not be right there with her? I think taking that parent-and-tot swim class first was an excellent move, because she got to see what it's like to have a teacher give instruction and then the students move without question to do whatever it is she's telling them to do. I'm going to take her over to the rec center early so she has a little time to check out the room before other people get there (hopefully), and I'll talk to her a bunch during the morning about what classes are like. I really hope she enjoys herself; she's been wanting to take a dance class for so long, I would really hate for her to have a bad first day and totally burst that bubble. I just hope I won't have to bribe her again with a muffin to get her to cooperate!
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