This morning I took Tau to the dentist for the very first time. What a boytjie!
He sat in the chair all by himself but started to get nervous and stiff as his dentist, Dr. Beavers, made the chair wind up and down, and put on his mask.
Dr. Beavers explained that the mask was to stop him from sneezing all over his patients, he let Tau hold the “special Spiderman straw” (suction wand), and he told Tau that the bright overhead lamp was to help him see and count all of Tau’s teeth properly.
Which he did — together they counted ten at the top and ten at the bottom, which means that all of Tau’s baby teeth are fully in. He saw no decay and said Tau was right on target in terms of dental development.
Tau got a new toothbrush, which the dentist used to brush his teeth very thoroughly. He even let Dr. Beavers polish them with the whiny buffer and nasty gritty paste they use! Every so often, Tau would hold the suction straw up to his mouth and spit into it like a pro.
I sat on the sidelines, holding Tau’s hand, watching his little body tense right up at first, the new toothbrush held stiffly in his other hand like a flag. As the dentist loosened him up and cracked three-year-old-humor jokes, I saw Tau’s body relax into the chair until he was absolutely at ease.
When we were all done, Dr. Beavers snapped off his exam glove, blew it up into a balloon, drew a happy face on it and told Tau he’d see him in a year!
