First visit to the dentist

I had wanted to bring Yiu Yiu for a dental check-up since last year with the intention of exposing her to dentists, so that she won’t grow up fearing the dentists, like I did. My first exposure to the dentist was when I was in primary school. Those days, we had mobile dental clinics visiting our school and they would check on the oral health of the students. Students found to have dental caries were then arranged to undergo further treatment at the Klinik Pergigian, and I was one of those students. I've always dread going to the dentists, even to this day. And I always have to brace myself up for the twice yearly dental check-up! It could be due to the traumatizing experience of being taken to the Klinik Pergigian then, or it could be due to my extremely sensitive palate that whenever any dental instrument touches it, I'll retch.

Since I want her early experience with dentists to be a positive one so she doesn't grow up dreading them, I wanted to find a dentist who's child-friendly and would put her at ease during the visit. Someone recommended this dentist but her appointments are always full, especially on Saturdays, and has to be booked weeks in advance. As such, I procrastinated, as usual!

The other day, I noticed a tiny brown spot on Yiu Yiu's upper right lateral incisor and upon closer inspection, I was dismayed to realize that it was actually a tiny cavity. I quickly checked on all her teeth and found several tiny cavities on her lower teeth as well. I quickly called up the clinic but I still couldn't get an appointment with Dr. Jean, the owner. The earliest appointment available was around 3rd or 4th week of September but her front desk manager assured me that their other dentist, Dr. Amy, is good with children as well. Since I didn’t want to wait that long, I decided to see Dr. Amy. Even then, our appointment was only scheduled for a week later.

Before the visit, I had been psyching Yiu Yiu up, telling her that I'll be taking her to the dentist to check on her teeth as some of her teeth are "spoilt". She asked if it would be painful and I had to evade the question by saying that the dentist will only check and clean her teeth, coz I really wouldn't know if the dentist would do anything on her teeth. Anyway, she seemed to look forward to the visit, and even asked if the dentist is pretty…haha!

The visit went very well. While waiting for our turn, Yiu Yiu happily played with toys at the waiting area and walked around kpc everywhere.

When our turn came, Dr. Amy talked to her and put her at ease immediately. She checked on Yiu Yiu's teeth and confirmed that what I saw are early caries.

I think in total Yiu Yiu has about 4 or 5 teeth with early caries. And since Yiu Yiu doesn't sleep while sucking on her bottle of milk, which is the most common cause of tooth caries in children, she said that probably Yiu Yiu's teeth are just more susceptible to caries. Luckily Yiu Yiu's caries are all at the incisors, which should start to fall off in 2-3 years time. There's none at her molars, which will be with her for a longer time as the permanent molars don't erupt until she's 9 or 10 years old. There's no need to do anything now but to ensure that we maintain good oral hygiene to prevent the caries from worsening. My fault actually, coz I never insist on Yiu Yiu brushing her teeth before sleeping. But from now on, I guess she'll have to do it whether she likes it or not. The dentist also asked me to floss for her daily. Now that's going to be a challenge, coz I myself don't floss regularly :-) Anyway, I guess I also have no choice but to be more diligent in caring for my teeth as my gums have receded over the years due to tartar buildup.