Hannah's first official tooth cleaning

I forgot about Hannah's first dentist appointment last week until today at lunch when Erin mentioned going to her dentist at The Rotunda. I can't remember why she was telling me that because I immediately interrupted to ask which dentist (there are two there, one on either side of the elevator), and then, when realizing that we share the same dentist and the same dental hygienist, we went on a tangent about how ridiculously awesome our hygienist is.

Beth, our hygienist, is seriously the best tooth cleaner ever. Yeah, sometimes it hurts, but I come out of there with the cleanest mouth EVER because she is thorough, and she's good. She gets ever last bit of yuck and leaves me with the smoothest teeth ever. She's also really fun to talk to, although I try to mostly just listen because it's difficult to talk when your mouth is full of fingers and sharp objects .

I searched around a bit this summer for a "kid" dentist to take Hannah to but when I couldn't find one that took our insurance, I said forget it and made her an appointment with Beth and Dr. Chen. This turned out to be a fantastic idea for a few reasons. The first is that I brought Hannah with me to my last two dental appointments so she has met Beth before and seen me lounging around in the dentist chair with the light in my face and the tools in my mouth.

Another reason is that Dr. Chen and Associates turned out to be a really kid friendly establishment. Beth had promptly outfitted Hannah in a pair of green star-shaped shades to block the glaring light and chatted comfortingly, explaining exactly what she was doing or about to do the whole time I was in there.

The crazy thing is that I wasn't in there the whole time. We got there late so I hung back in the waiting room to fill out paperwork, and Hannah just followed Beth back with no hesitation and no backward glances at me.

I snuck back with my phone to snap some pics as soon as I had checked all the appropriate boxes, and my dad and Sondra snuck back for some pics too. They were off work for Veteran's Day and showed up at the house a few minutes before Hannah got home from school, so they got to tag along for Hannah's first dentist appointment. (The Hannah fan club cleared out when the dentist came in to give him a bit of breathing room.)

They even had paste in Hannah's favorite flavor: blueberry. Too bad Toms of Maine doesn't carry that one!

After the polish, Beth handed Hannah the spit-sucker thing and taught her how to use it. She was a little confused by it, but honestly, so am I, and I've had a lot more practice.  I don't get it--is it supposed to just suck up your spit? Because I don't think it does a great job; I feel like you actually need to spit into it to get it to empty out your mouth. Is that normal?

After the exam Beth let Hannah pick out a new toothbrush and then stuffed a mask and some rubber gloves in the to-go bag so Hannah could play dentist at home. (Beth doesn't wear the mask with kids because it tends to freak them out, but she showed it to Hannah in the beginning and explained that she normally wears it so Hannah wasn't worried when Dr. Chen came in donning one.)

After filling up the goodie bag, Beth led Hannah to a cardboard treasure chest and told her she could pick a piece of treasure to take with her. Hannah picked a blue bracelet. On the way out, she found the giant plastic teeth and toothbrush and took some time to polish up those bad boys like Beth had taught her.

And then we walked home! Have I mentioned that I LOVE being able to walk to the dentist?? I don't think it's something many people can claim. City life has its perks.