I was chatting with a friend the other day, and she was surprised I took my daughter to the dentist before she even turned one. She thought it was kinda unnecessary, you know, like "what's the dentist gonna do with a baby who barely has teeth?" But honestly, I'm so glad I did.
My daughter is now four, and yesterday we went for her regular checkup. It was amazing—she hopped right into the chair, opened her mouth wide, and didn't even flinch when they cleaned her teeth. The dentist was impressed and said she rarely sees kids this comfortable at such a young age. Made me feel pretty proud, not gonna lie.
Thinking back, the first couple visits were mostly just getting her used to the environment. They'd let her sit in the big chair, play with some of the tools (the safe ones, obviously!), and basically just made it fun. At the time, I wasn't sure if it was really worth it, but seeing how calm and cooperative she is now, I'm convinced it made a huge difference.
Plus, we've caught little things early on—like when she started thumb-sucking a lot, the dentist gave us some tips that actually worked. Probably saved us from braces down the line (fingers crossed!).
Anyway, I'm curious if other parents did something similar with their kids. Did starting early make dentist visits easier for your family too, or did it not really matter much?
We started early too, mostly because I was super anxious about dentists myself and didn't want my son picking up on that. It worked—he's way calmer than me now at appointments, and honestly, it's helped ease my nerves too... win-win situation.
