They Might Be Curly Giants!

The appointment had been set weeks before. The day had come. Ajab’s first ever dental appointment. In school by a volunteer dentist who had come to his school. After the initial worry and cries associated with him being in a new environment, Ajab warmed up to the school clinic, which included a room for dental work.

The first 15 minutes were spent acclimatising him to his new surroundings while we waited for the dentist to arrive. He quickly warmed up to the place and his teacher used a picture of an unknown subject being poked and prodded by an unknown dentist in an unknown location.

Ajab took one look at the picture, processed the information and quickly proceeded to poke and prod me into his usual habit of pointing at something and asking, no … , demanding that we say out loud what it is that he’s pointing at. In this case it was Messrs. Cow, Rooster, Dog and Horse.

He sat on the dental chair on his own nicely enough. That is until the dentist came and he suspected something bad was going to happen to him and tried to quickly hop down the chair, to no avail. The dentist, along with the clinic nurse, dental nurse, and a dental assistant calmed him down enough for him to lay back on the chair. The plastic tiger, hippo and elephant, along with some stickers helped. For a while. As soon as the dentist started up his polishing tool and it whirled its way into Ajab’s mouth, forced open by a plastic (or was it rubber?) thingy between his teeth, the struggles reached its peak and the crying continued unabated for the next 15 minutes.

The good news was that there wasn’t anything wrong with Ajab’s teeth. Just a little staining from his diet. All that’s needed is regular brushing. No cavities or decay. So I thanked the dentist and left with an out of breath Ajab still sobbing from his torturous experience. Sat him down outside the clinic and spent the next 15 minutes calming him down before returning to class for the last few minutes of the school day.

All in all, it was a good day actually, although I can’t imagine bringing him to a regular dentist who may have no experience in dealing with an autistic kid. I would imagine Ajab kicking the unfortunate and hapless dental assistant away in a hail of flying pans, teeth polishing gel and other dental equipment, so I’m grateful that Ajab’s dentist today had tremendous patience and skill to handle him with minimum fuss. Apart from a little bleeding, Ajab’s teeth are as perfect and shiny white as they can be now.