The dental visit went pretty well, all told.

Pro-tip: If you’re going to hold your special needs kid out of school for an early-morning dental clinic visit, call the school so they know.  Otherwise, you get a weird, awkward phone call from the office, while his one-on-one aide is standing there, asking why he’s not there.

I don’t generally remember how the prior visit goes, when we’re going to the doctor or the dentist.  I still have in my mind about how the Monster’s been horrible on prior visits – that we’ve had to restrain him, usually by my wrapping myself bodily around him.  Needless to say, the dentist isn’t much fun for me – I spend about twenty to thirty minutes head-down in the chair to keep him against my chest while the dentist works.

So, this time, we saw his regular dentist’s partner.  I’m not really sure that I like this other dentist – his usual one is used to patients with Autism, and just goes about things in a different fashion.  This one was a little less tolerant for points where I felt it was appropriate for me to step in, since the Monster isn’t all that verbal, and doesn’t understand a lot of the things he’s being asked.

But… he tolerated having his teeth cleaned with the actual tool, even with all of the noise that the tools make.  We discussed the fact that he has several loose teeth – two on the bottom and now two on the top – and when we need to be concerned… and he was just good about the whole thing.

Course, I didn’t make another appointment yet for him, and I neglected to get him a note for school to explain the absence, but that’s a different issue.  (The former is because R’s appointment wasn’t made either, and the latter because of my swiss-cheese memory.)

I’m going to be curious to see if he’s as tolerant at the doctor later this year…