Try, Try, and Try Again: The Dentist

Usually bringing Kit to the dentist is an exercise in anxiety for everyone involved. Kit gets really stressed out and won't let anyone in his mouth for more than a nanosecond.  He's all freaked out by the instruments so they usually are only able to do a cursory brush with a regular toothbrush. h\He jumps out of the chair a hundred times and it takes a lot of coaxing to get him to sit down. But, we always see the same dental hygienist, Justin, and he always tries to get Kit comfortable with the various tools, like the water squirter, the suction wand and the polishing brush. This guy is really great.

Well today when we went to our 6 month check-up (more like 8), Kit did soooooo well. We were able to completely clean all of his teeth with the polishing brush without any drama.  He let me hold his hands when he got a bit anxious, and they really got in there and were able to do a complete exam -flossing and all.

The only downside of this story is that he has three cavities that need to be addressed. In the past, he's had to be under anesthesia (like a complete knock out) to fill any cavities, which is really stressful for me.  This time, we're going to try to just heavily sedate him and see how he does.  This will involve a pre-arrival valium, and then versed -a drug that causes relaxation, sleepiness and can cause partial or complete loss of memory during the use of the drug. I guess the reason this doesn't sound more scary to me is that in the past we had to use versed followed by propofol -the drug that killed Michael Jackson, in order to do the work. In case you think I'm miss medication, don't, because Ethan also has a cavity and was thinking he should use some laughing gas to which I replied no way, jose.

After the dentist, we drove west on Ocean Avenue to get to Noriega Market and saw this gorgeous sunset. If you look closely you can see the Farallon Islands backlight in the distance.