Dentist - Part Deux

Well, Lydia had another dental visit where they extracted one tooth and put a silver cap on another tooth (baby tooth). The anesthia and/or hospital visit wasn't covered and was WAY too expensive so this was the only option. We had been back to this dentist a few weeks ago to set up a treatment plan and at that time they just looked at her teeth. I told her many times during the week before that visit that they were just going to look. Lalie even acted it out for her.

So, she had some good feelings about this dentist from that visit and was willing to go back if it was to him. We talked about it for days ahead of time and she knew she was going to get a shot but that it wouldn't hurt much, only tinnish (a tiny bit). She had watched the movie Madeline so many times I had to hide it up in my closet because I couldn't stand to listen to it even one more time. But, a great thing in the movie is when Madeline has to have an emergency appendectomy and Miss Clavell tells her that she can do anything so she repeats over and over, "I can do anything." That helped Lydia also.

Lalie let her borrow two of her stuffed animals so she is holding a penguin in the picture. Mostly, that ended up helping the dental hygienist to keep her from putting her hands up and taking the nitrous off her nose or getting her hands in the way of the dental work. But, maybe it helped Lydia also. After she had the shot, Lalie and I waited out in the waiting room.

In the waiting room, the office manager came out and asked me if I'd brought my adoption papers. I really didn't think they'd ask me again but they did. I told her the same thing I'd told the receptionist - that I had what she needed (at home) but I didn't feel like I needed to give it to them. I said I'd had Lalie for eight years and she'd had surgeries and dental work and all sorts of things and I'd never been asked for adoption papers for her. So, when Lydia was finished I talked to the dentist about it. (I could see them brief him in his office before coming out to me - probably telling them about the "problem woman.") He told me that he requires this of all adoptive and foster parents to cover himself if anything came back to him legally. I still wasn't happy but after I'd left the office and calmed down a bit I decided I'd go ahead and submit the papers for a few reasons - perhaps he was justified in needing to protect himself, I felt like I'd said my piece all the way up to the top of the chain, and the bottom line was that Lydia was comfortable going there and I wasn't about to change that.

I had bought a special little box (pink, of course) for Lydia's tooth to be ready for the tooth fairy. This was Lydia's first introduction to the tooth fairy and she was bewildered by it all. We left her tooth out in the dining room in the box on the table, partly for ease of the tooth fairy to be able to get in and out undetected, and partly because I didn't want her to be scared by the thought of some magical creature coming into her room at night. She already has fears at night and wants as many lights on as possible all night long.

In the morning, she found a little Webkinz dog with a pink bow and some money (both of which her sister has in larger supply which was definitely noticed before this). She named the dog Hermela and Lalie took this picture of her in the morning. She was still confused by the whole tooth fairy thing because she asked, "Is it a bird?" But, she certainly liked the tooth fairy idea. She handed me back the pink tooth box (and still couldn't believe someone would come and take her tooth). I told her to keep it and that in a month on her next dentist visit, she'd have another tooth to put in it (we're doing the dental work in three stages). She said:

"Next time, my tooth is out?"
"Yes."
"Yeahhh!!" she screamed and danced around.
"The shot, I don't know."
(She didn't even feel the shot this time.)

So, I guess we're doing OK with the dentist now - both of us.