3yo won't open mouth at dentist

[DontYouStartMadam]

Took DS 3.5yo to dentist this morning as he was complaining of tooth ache the day before. I had actually booked his first appointment for before I knew about his toothache a few weeks ago, but had to cancel because he came down with a cold

Anyway I prepared him, we watched videos, practiced at home opening his mouth, read books etc. Get him to the chair, he sits on my lap and he refuses to open his mouth. He says he's scared. We explained to him she's just going to count his teeth, demonstrated with my mouth too. Tried for 10 mins and nothing worked so we just went home.

Anyone have any similar stories? He may have to be sedated if his pain gets worse. He is next-level stubborn in general and getting his cooperation with most tasks is an uphill battle.

You've done all the right things. If you're worried about tooth decay you need to have them seen (otherwise I would say try next year) - best course of action is an enormous reward for doing it

@onamatofpea Oh yes, forgot to mention that I tried to bribe him with a trip to a cafe for some cake afterwards (of course brushing teeth again when we get home lol! 😅 even that wasn't enough

No advice but had the same issue with ds who is now 15 but was very young at the time.

Would only open his mouth as we got to the door to leave. We did a lot of reading and practicing before hand. Our dentist is called Anna so we did role play using her name. Everything. He seemed happy going in but point blank would not cooperate.

After we gently probed as to what the problem was.

"That's not NANA!" We were told. He thought his Nana would inspect his teeth and on finding it would be Anna, declined to participate.

@MovingCrib Must have been nice to find the source of the problem. Mine just says "it's scary and new". I don't know what to do to make it less scary as he tends to oppose most new things

Could you book a double appointment and and have a check up yourself first - I take my 3yo when I go, and she watches me have mine checked, then happily let's the dentist look at hers too.

It could be worth doing some role play. I did this with my DD to help her feel more at ease with Covid PCRs. Buy a sheet of jolly stickers. Buy or make a toy dentist mirror. Line up any teddies that have mouths that open and they get to take turns at having your DS count their teeth. Then he says 'well done, you can have a sticker!' and gives the teddy a sticker.

Dentists rooms are really unwelcoming, smell funny, and the big chair and bright lights are intimidating. I'd also see if there are any more kids programmes/books you could look at together to get more familiar with the environment. Vague recollection of a Topsy and Tim dentist story.

We had the same, couldn’t get DD to open her mouth despite practice, books, reassurance and bribery. I gave up and will try again next year.
Luckily we didn’t have toothache to deal with, hope you find something that works

@Kingofthetyrantlizards @INeedNewShoes thank you both for those suggestions, I have him booked for another checkup in December so I will get those in place beforehand

@ChocHotolate Commiserations 😓 I hope things go smoothly for you at your next appointment