Dentist

Well, we had our follow-up dentist appointment yesterday. G is not overly fond of the dentist (to put it mildly) so we had her referred to a pediatric dentist when she needed to get some discing done. We decided to bring Mebira to the same place since we knew as soon as we saw her that she'd need work done on her teeth. And since we had 2 kids there already we thought we'd bring E along, too. G passed her cleaning and exam with flying colours, and we got the news that E had one cavity and Mebira needed work on five teeth.

Considering that we know of a few families who have adopted older kids from Ethiopia who have had to get numerous teeth extracted, I guess five fillings wasn't too bad for Mebira. And, considering she didn't brush her teeth for nearly five years of her life I guess five fillings isn't too bad. Thankfully, she didn't need a needle for two of her teeth (on molars, both sides, toward the back), but she needed quite a bit of work done on her front teeth and definitely needed some freezing for that.

Mebira and E were both troopers - they didn't love it, but they had good attitudes and tried their best to keep their mouths open, etc. This dentist is the best - she is a lovely lady, and the place is totally set up for young families. They have TVs with movies everywhere, and lots of little play rooms with toys and more TVs with movies. The girls watched Tangled and it made the event much better.

Mebira hung in there quite well, but we did decide to give her some laughing gas at the end to keep her relaxed as they worked on her front teeth. I've attached some pictures of them lying in the dentist chairs...two hours and $1,200 later we were glad when it was all over!
(Above) Mebira, breathing in her grape flavoured laughing gas with a slightly puffy lip. She looked like a little elephant - so cute!
(Above and below) Watching Tangled...the sunglasses are to help shield them from the bright dentist light....it almost looks like they're having fun, doesn't it?