Monday was the semi-annual visit to the dentist for R and the Monster.

We use Dr. Bowden at Pediatric Dentistry – the practice has been wonderful with the Monster, and has a great strategy for easing kids into getting their teeth checked regularly.  During the first year, you have appointments every 3 months (every other one is unbilled) to get the child accustomed to someone poking into their mouth, and then you settle into the usual twice-a-year practice of getting your teeth looked at.

Save that the Monster’s never quite been content to get his teeth checked.

Most of the time, this therefore entails my sitting in the chair, playing makeshift straightjacket, and keeping him in place so that the dentist and/or hygienist can try to clean his teeth, or at least look at them.

This visit ended up being right before I was due to go back into work for my first day back since the sabbatical.  So, as usual, the wife took R and I took the Monster, and we were escorted back to the chair for us to do our thing.  Since it was earlier in the morning, he was a bit more sedate, and let me settle him into my lap with a minimum of fussing, though he did start to put up a fight when the hygienist put the chair back.  (I don’t know why he was complaining. I’m the one who was mostly heads-down.)

But… most of it went fine, actually.  He was good and let the hygienist brush his teeth with a toothbrush and the cleaning compound, and even let her do her thing with the regular cleaning-brush.  He only really put up a fight when the dentist himself came in and wanted to poke around a bit more, but that might have been as much from being in the chair for as long as he had been… and in the end, he walked away with clean teeth, and an admonition that we should floss him more often.

Nothing to complain about, this time…