Open wide....

My dental hygiene efforts with Brianna have been less than stellar. From day one, I knew I was supposed to wipe her gums with a cloth. But she hated it. So I didn't do it. We had some minor success with a finger brush tool, until she bit me so hard it drew blood. We went through a period of time where Brian pinned her down and I got a good brushing in while she just screamed. That didn't do much to teach her the joys of dental care. I started letting her brush her own teeth every night, but all she really did was suck on the brush and chew it a little, then beg for more toothpaste (because kid toothpaste tastes like candy - very ingenious, though concerning... what chemicals are they using to do that?!)  I consoled my guilt-ridden soul with the fact that she often munched on veggies like celery, which might be helping to clean her teeth a little. And I never give her anything but water and very diluted fruit juice - often in a cup with a straw, so it wouldn't sit on her teeth very much. But still... she wasn't learning to just brush her teeth every night as part of the ritual. So I went online and looked up tips and ideas. Tried them. Sang silly songs, let her brush daddy's teeth, demonstrated my own mad brushing skills, bought her an Elmo toothbrush... she definitely thought it was more fun, but still fought me. So we found a solution - she doesn't get story time at bed unless she lets me "count all her teeth with the toothbrush."  I don't know if that's considered bribery or threatening... both being fabulous parenting tools, right? But it works!
So now that we have brushing down my guilt is lessened, but not gone.  Because she still hasn't been to the dentist. I know - most standard AAP-type advice says to take them at one year, then every 6 months, or whatever. Right, like I'm going to waste our money so we can pin her into a seat that she's supposed to just loooove because it can go up and down, while some stranger pries open her mouth and puts her through a torturous traumatizing experience, only to result in them giving me the same advice I can read online. No thankyou. But I had my own dental checkup last week (had to get it in before the babies come, since who knows when I'll be able to go again!) so while I was there, we tried to get Brianna to participate in their "happy visit"  routine. This is as far as we got:

The sweet hygienist got her to brush the mouth model for a few seconds. (Ignore the lollipop stick in her mouth. It's organic and all-fruit, I swear.) But that's all she would do. Soooo.... we try again in a few months? Or years? Or tell her she can't have story time unless she lets the dentist do whatever he wants? I think she'd choose to forgo story time indefinitely. But hey - I got a picture of her at the dentist office, and I blogged it... I'm officially in the good mom category, right? Right. Yesssssss.