Sam's Trip to the Dentist

Recently all three boys hit the dentist for their 6 month check up. All was well and good until the dentist peeked at Sam's x-rays. She saw a shadow - the dreaded "there-might-be-a-cavity there shadow that dentists can spot amongst the highlights and shadows of the x-ray. I've got to say that the x-rays themselves are pretty cool - you really can see all of the teeth in their little heads - ALL the teeth. Max had a bunch that were almost ready to pop out, and Ian and Sam had a stash ready to go in a few years.

Anyway, back to Sam. He had that little shadow and so we scheduled a follow up to have the cavity filled. It was a smallish thing that was on a baby tooth, but it was one of the last baby teeth that he would lose, so it really needed to be filled. That appointment was yesterday. You might think that it was traumatic since I'm just now getting around to posting about it, but that's not the case. It went surprisingly well - Sam was a complete trooper.

We had an early appointment and he and I headed over there, arriving on time. We had to wait for about 10 minutes, but it was no big deal as Sam had no idea what was about to happen. We had explained to him what was going on, but having no idea really what a cavity is or a drill or anything like that, he really wasn't sure what was going on. The hygienist and the dentist came in and hooked him up to the laughing gas, and set up Cars the movie so that he could watch it while they were working. The laughing gas and the movie did their jobs, and when the dentist came in to start working, aside from being slightly distracted by the movie, Sam did exactly what he was told and hardly flinched when they administered the Novocaine. He had a tear running down his cheek, but said that it was because it tasted bad, not because it hurt. Amazing.

He sat through the whole thing - about 20 minutes when all was said and done, and didn't take his eyes off the screen. He even managed to laugh at the first few scenes of the movie. Did I say amazing already? He went through the whole thing and not a peep about the drill, the having to hold still, or anything. Simply amazing. Sam is my hero (until he turns back into the little 4 year old boy that he really is...)