Winning Smiles

We took the boys to a pediatric dentist last week. Ian needs a dental exam to be officially registered for Kindergarten and they were both overdue for their first visit in general.

I picked Winning Smiles because they are a pediatric dentist and geared towards kids…but I also have to say, the fact that they had a movie theater and a video game room in their waiting room definitely swayed me. I knew Ian and Matthew would really warm up to a place like that.

Walking into the building:

Ian and Matthew were on their welcome sign:

Reception/waiting room area:

Theater room:

Mike and the boys watching “The Incredibles”:

Dr. Mike’s Funzone (video game room):

Train table and kitchen that Matthew enjoyed playing with:

There was a pre-teen-agish girl sitting right next to the train table that Matthew kept talking to while he played. He kept showing her all the different trains and was telling her their names. LOL She was so good about playing along with him. 🙂

After a short waiting, the hygentiest called Ian and me back to the Consult Room:

We talked about the paperwork that I had filled out and they went over what the plan was for our visit.

Ian was then taken back to Hygiene Bay:

Ian was examined on the green chair. 🙂

The nerves hit Ian pretty hard as he climbed up in the examining chair so I stood beside him and held his hand. The hygienist did an unbelievably awesome job about explaining what was happening before she started touching him. She let him hold all the tools, explained what it was and what they were going to do and put him at ease. She even let him touch the paper “bib” before she put it on his chest!

Despite all the time she spent preparing him, I still needed to hold his hand…but I could tell he was much less nervous.

She counted all his teeth and the brushed his teeth. The only part that threw him for a loop was when they squirted water in his mouth and then sucked it out. That was probably the scariest part for Ian.

A cool thing about this dentist is that they have flat screen TVs above every examining chair and they give the kids individual speaker/headphones to listen to the movie. Of course, that meant Ian did a lot of kinda-yelling when he was asked a question. LOL

After Ian got his teeth cleaned, they took him to the xray room to get some pictures of his teeth. After several attempts, the hygienist threw in the towel. Every time she attempted to get Ian to bite down on the thingy that they make you bite down on, he’d gag. LOL She said they would try next time.

Ian came back to his examining chair and Dr. Mike came in to examine his teeth and to put a fluoride treatment on.

The verdict? Ian has all 20 teeth and they looked awesome. The doctor and hygienist said we were doing a good job keeping them clean. They said he’s got a lot of space between his teeth so we shouldn’t have too much crowding once his permanent teeth come in. Unfortunately, he’s got a pretty big overbite so he’ll likely need braces to correct that. Overall, it was a really positive experience.

Ian was all smiles after it was all over!

While they were attempting to get pictures of Ian’s teeth, Matthew and Mike were called back into the Toddler Room:

They have the parent hold the child on their lap while a hygienist counts the child’s teeth and brushes them.

After Dr. Mike looked at Ian’s teeth, we followed him over to the Toddler Room to watch while he examined Matthew’s teeth.

Mike turned Matthew towards his chest and then laid him back for the doctor. Mike was SUPER thrilled I was taking pictures. LOL

While the doctor examined Matthew’s teeth, he asked the boys if they had fun in the waiting room. I told him that Matthew loves trains so he was excited to see the train table. I said that he was a really big Thomas fan (and pointed out the Thomas shirt that Matthew was wearing). The doctor got all exited when I told him that and SANG THE ENTIRE THOMAS THEME SONG while looking at Matthew’s teeth and applying the fluoride treatment. Literally, the whole thing! LOL

The verdict? Matthew has all 20 teeth and they looked really great too. The doctor and hygienist said we were doing a good job on Matthew’s teeth as well. The doctor pointed out that Matthew’s baby teeth are kind of crowded together and that he has a pretty big overbite. Both are indications that we’ll likely need to do braces for him as well.

After both boys were done, they gave us balloons and toys from the Treasure Tower:

We made appointments to come back in 6 months and left having had a WONDERFUL visit to the dentist!

(Disclaimer: All pictures without my watermark were downloaded from the Winning Smiles Facebook page.)