Today we had our first visit to the dentist with Hawkeye. There was no specific need behind it, just the idea of exposing him to going to the dentist, reminding him about the importance of brushing his teeth, and making sure there was nothing blindingly obvious going on inside his mouth that we weren’t aware of.
Hawkeye really likes going to the doctor’s office (no, really) so I capitalised on that by referring to the dentist as The Tooth Doctor. This paid off and he was quite excited. When it was finally time to go in there was only the briefest of hesitation at the door before he strode in, responding to the dentist and listening to him with absolutely no signs of reluctance. He climbed up into the dentist chair and was unfazed by it going moving beneath him. He kept his mouth open for the examination. And basically charmed everyone within a five foot radius of him.
Now we just have to translate this to more success with the actual brushing of the teeth. Because he’s pretty good with doing it… when he wants to. He just doesn’t want to very often.
The Feathered Rose 