You can take a kid to the dentist...

...but you can't make him open his mouth! Round Two of Jordan and the filling went on this morning. Score Jordan 2-0. Now, let me just say that we have a great dentist. I myself am not fond of the dentist and have some major anxiety over it. But this guy is good. You barely feel it when he numbs you, which is always the worst part. Also, Jordan has had a filling in the past! He barely flinched, said it was no big deal! But that was two years ago and his little mind has apparently spent a lot of time blowing this thing out of proportion.

Today we went in prepared to use a little laughing gas. Our dentist isn't crazy about drugs of any kind (which I like) but will use them if necessary. Jordan had bucked up a little and decided he was going to have it done without the gas. He really seemed more calm and I thought he's go through with it. Nope. then he wouldn't even let them put this little mask over his nose to try the laughing gas. So we left the office, sans filling. Dentist is going to think about this problem today and call me with some ideas.

Basically, we've got 4 options. First, just hold the kid down, gas him, numb him and fill the tooth. Dentist if a very kind and gentle man, not into holding kids down. He says he saw some awful things in dental school and hates to traumatize a child. So this is, for many reasons, a last resort.

Option 2: Slip him a mickey. Is that still current slang? Anyway, drug the kid up at home and then bring him in. With Jordan and his medicine taking/picky eating issues, this would probably also entail some holding down and possibly some pukage. Now, there's a chance we could slip it in some Coke....which was the dentist's thought. But my kid is going to wonder why I'm letting him drink Coke in the first place, probably figure it out, and refuse to drink the spiked soda. We've been down THAT road before. (Honestly, I wrote it in the baby book when he was old enough to swallow pills....small pills only though!)

Option 3: Sedate him with a shot. Okay....that's not going to work. If the kid won't let you give him a tiny shot in the mouth to numb a tooth, he's sure not going to let you put one in his arm.

Option 4: Try another dentist. We have a pediatric dentist in our area with a bunch of bells and whistles in the office. Headset games for the kids to play during procedures. Maybe the distraction will be enough. I think this is the option I'm leaning toward. Chris doesn't want to take him all the way up there just to waste another dentist's time (though I'm willing to bet that they charge for a chicken out appointment, which our current dentist doesn't).

So there you have it folks.....what would you do if it were your kid?