Today Big Sis had her first trip to the dentist. These days the introduction to the services of a dentist are handled very sensitively! She was allowed to sit on mummy’s knee and the dentist let her watch herself on TV as he counted her teeth. She stayed on my lap for my check up, and was presented with a gift of a pink toothbrush and toothpaste as we left. She can’t wait to go back!
The idea behind it is that the dentist will be a happy, demystified place and she will not have the fear of generations before her! Just like the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas this is, I think, one of those happy childhood deceits! Because, as we all know, the dentist is a scary place!
He can take one look in your mouth and prescribe hours of excruciating torture - starting with that awful huge needle that never seems to dull the pain and really really hurts when it goes in (no matter what he says)!
I started to wonder, what happens to Big Sis when she realises that this happy place of childhood games and gifts (the dentists chair) is actually a front for a torture chamber? Will she be able to trust again? Will she blame me? Would we have been better off saving the introduction until she was in real need of a filling and strapping her to the chair? Does the human state require a place to fear, in which case maybe the dentist is as good a place as any? Are we over protecting our kids from adversity?
I wasn’t able to dwell on these issues for long however, as soon we were united with Little Bro (who was spending the hour with grandma) and Big Sis gave him the a full and hilarious rundown of the experience, explaining he is too little for the dentist - and proudly displaying her gifts. Oh well, I thought, she’ll need something to talk to her therapist about.
Dentist, Teeth
