Open wide

This is a bit of old news, since it happened two weeks ago, but I didn't want it to go unrecorded that Sonia successfully managed her first trip to the dentist earlier this month. We were prompted to finally schedule something after the pediatrician shamed us by asking if we had taken her yet during Sonia's 3-year checkup, so the appointment was scheduled for after Thanksgiving. Due to our countless readings of "Show Me Your Smile" (where Dora the Explorer goes to the dentist), Sonia was convinced that this was another important milestone in being a "big girl" ("babies don't go to the dentist") and was actually pretty excited.

Sameer took her (of course...insert comment about him being a better parent here) and Sonia was remarkably calm through the whole thing. She opened wide when instructed, and allowed them to inspect and polish all of her teeth. Kind of surprising because this is the same kid who won't drink a glass of cold milk unless you wrap a napkin around it because the condensation bothers her. The dental assistant even asked if it was really her first time, and said she was one of the best behaved 3-year-olds they had. Yes, we are slapping ourselves on the back for that one. That was the good news. The bad news was that we do a lousy job of brushing her back teeth (not exactly shocking) and that she will likely need braces when she is older (ugh, ugh, ugh). Apparently even though she has a nice big gap between her two front teeth, that does not mean the adult teeth will grow in next to each other. In fact, because there is tissue between the teeth, while the gap will narrow with adult teeth, it will not go away without braces. At this point the dentist asked follow up questions like did we let her suck her thumb, or does she still have a binky, all of which we denied (neither being the case) so he said it was likely just genetics. And by genetics, he must mean Sameer, since straight teeth was one of the few genetic traits I was hoping Sonia would inherit from me.

Do they make 529c's for orthodontia?

Here is a photo of the model patient in the dentist's chair (the sunglasses are what they give little kids so the bright lights don't bother them).