A smiley milestone

Elle went to the dentist for the first time this week! It was a rescheduled appointment, as our home was hit by some sort of stomach virus and she was vomiting and feverish the day before her previously scheduled appointment. But once she was feeling better, they squeezed us in for an appointment, and she did great.

I had been telling her for weeks that the dentist was going to count her teeth and see how clean they were. She's only recently gotten over a slight phobia of doctors, and she handled this "special tooth doctor" like a champ. They had a huge aquarium and toys, and I think that won her over.

They told me that they're usually not able to do a full cleaning on three year olds, but Elle was examined, polished, flossed and fluoride-d without much complaint (I think by the end the novelty had worn off and she just wanted to be done and look at the fish again). She even got to wear sunglasses because the light was so bright.

The dentist said her teeth look great, and the only thing he noted was her thumb sucking habit. As a former thumb sucker myself, I knew pretty much what he was going to tell me - it's an orthodontic issue, she's a tongue thruster, the roof of her mouth is becoming more narrow because of it, etc. He joked that we should just start a fund now to save for her future orthodontic issues (I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it, no joke - contributions now being accepted!).

She is basically exhibiting all of the orthodontic issues I had, so I'm prepared for and familiar with it, and while we'd love for her to stop sucking her thumb, we (and our pediatrician, and the dentist) all agree that it's a tough habit to break, and forcing her to break it after her new brother entered the picture would be a recipe for disaster.

So for now, her teeth are clean, we brush and floss at home and we let the thumb sucking continue.