Say AHHHHH!

It was Friday the 13th.

I woke up with a start, looked at the alarm clock and realised to my astonishment that it was already 10.30am.

My girl was already awake and was lying on the bed, singing songs to herself while waiting for me to get up.

Usually I would be full of gratitude in my heart and shower her with lots of kisses for letting me sleep a little longer. But today it was different.

It was the day of Angel's first visit to the dentist!

Everything became a frenzy.

We gobbled some breakfast, changed out of our pyjamas, grabbed some valuables and the appointment letter, procrastinated a little longer before we finally dashed out of the house and ran all the way to the dental clinic. Which thankfully was a stone's throw away from our house.  

Phew.

Oh, and of course, Angel did the most important thing before leaving the house - Brush teeth!

In the past two weeks leading up to this big day, I had started prepping Angel who didn't really know what a dental visit meant.

I told her that a nice and kind person would be checking her teeth to see if she ate too much sweets and ice cream and whether her teeth were white and clean.

We also did 'Say Ahhhhh' trainings so that she learned to open her mouth wide for the dentist to look at her pearly whites.

We reached the clinic on the dot and once we arrived at the reception, the dentist came out and said "Angel Low?" followed by a warm handshake.

The first thing I noticed was that she was a pretty young lady. Big blue eyes, tall nose and a nice smile. Way better than the bald, old man I was half expecting and I thought to myself "This should be easy."

Alas the minute we entered the room, the sight of the reclined dental chair, tray of intimidating metal equipment and bright overhead lights instantly turned my girl into a frightened little koala bear.

So I was told to sit her on my lap while I sat on the dental chair and the dentist started telling stories and asking questions like "How are you today, Angel", "Do you like Sweden?", "The weather's good today, isn't it?", "Do you like to go to the zoo?", "Have you seen a tiger before?", "How does a tiger sound?" followed by making a big roar like a tigress and showing off her perfect set of teeth.

Well, I guessed that roar achieved the opposite effect because not only did my girl roar with her, she buried herself further into my arms like a petrified prey.

Then the dentist moved on with tactic #2, from a box of small toys, she took out a little figurine in the shape of a dinosaur head that could fit onto your finger and told Angel to touch its teeth. And she asked "Can you open your mouth like the dinosaur?"

Which, well, failed too.

Angel started tugging my hair and no amount of sweet talk or incentive would make her open her tightly pressed, pursed lips.

Pretty soon, the dentist said "We won't force her if she doesn't want to, she can go for her check up in Singapore. You can go home now."

I guess it was me who didn't want to give up and leave just like that. In the sweetest tone I could master, I asked Angel "What do you want now, darling? Do you really want to go home?"

She shook her head.

I asked again "So can you tell mummy what do you want?"

In almost a whimper, she said "I wanna choose" and feebly pointed to the box of toys.

It was that simple.

So the dentist gladly let her choose a toy which she took her own sweet time in choosing and finally decided on a orange frog figurine.

When she still refused to open her mouth and the dentist, who was probably running out of time, said we could take the present and leave, I told Angel "When someone is nice to you and gives you a present, what should you do? Have you forgotten your manners? All the dentist is asking is for you to open your mouth big so she can see your teeth."

That did the job.

She opened her mouth for as long as the dentist wanted her to after that. Happily.

In the end, the dentist didn't even insert any dental instrument into her mouth at all which I thought she would. She said Angel's teeth looked like they were all in good condition but gave me a set of tips.

- Water and milk are the best beverages for a child
- Pacifiers and thumb sucking are bad for teeth alignment and cause the upper teeth to push forward
- All upper teeth should ideally fit slightly over the lower teeth
- Even at her age, she should brush her teeth twice a day in the morning and night
- When it comes to sweets, it's not about the amount but the frequency

Well, for Angel, she drinks plenty of water and milk but she also drinks juice which is much sweeter and less healthy for her teeth, so we do try to dilute it whenever possible. She doesn't suck her thumb and was never on the pacifier. Her teeth are aligned for now and her bite is correct. Since a year ago, she has started the practice of brushing teeth twice daily. The last one which she probably is more guilty of is about eating sweets, candies and ice cream.

I had proudly told the dentist that she only ate 2-3 small sweets per day at most, that was when she said "It's not about how much you give her per time, but how many times you give her per week." And she told me to limit it to once a week.

So is it better for a child to eat 20 sweets in one shot on a Sunday or eat 2 sweets every day? I'm really not that sure.

Anyway, I'm still so proud of my girl on this first dental visit and we went for ice cream after bidding farewell to the dentist. A little ironic but oh well.

Now I'm really motivated to go for my next dental visit once I go back to the shores of Singapore. Not to brag, but come near 30 years of age and I have not a single cavity or dental filling in my mouth. I'm hoping to keep those silvery stuff away from me for as long as possible and I sincerely hope my girl can learn to keep her teeth healthy too.

How about you? When was the last time you visited the dentist?

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