The Dentist

About two weeks ago, I made Lakeland's first dentist appointment.  Because I'm insane, and also because I'm still fairly new around these parts, I did exhaustive research to find the best pediatric dentists in the area.  Yelp gave Alexandria Children's Dentistry 5 stars, and after googling the crap out of everything related to their business, I decided to give it a go.

I made an appointment and gave the receptionist my insurance information.  She said that she hadn't heard of Kaiser Permanente before, but she'd make a call and make sure that her office accepted the insurance.  She also said just to plan on bringing Lakeland in if I didn't hear anything back from her.

Seth and I spent the days leading up to her appointment talking to her about the dentist, showing her library books about the dentist, watching youtube video's of kids at the dentist, and queuing her older friends about their first trips to the dentist.  We were prepared.

We got up and got ready to go this morning, reminding LL that today was the big day!!  Time for the dentist.  Got my coffee and her water, left the fruit snacks in the snack drawer, and hauled everything out to the car.  And just as I snapped Lakeland's last buckle (yes, folks...I've learned my lesson), my phone rang.

It was the 5 star rated dentist's office.

Horrible Dentist Office:  Hi, Mrs. Weinburger, this is Alexandria Children's Dentistry...you have an appointment for Lakeland in about 20 minutes?

Me:  Yes.  Yes?

Horrible Dentist Office:  We just checked, and our office doesn't take your insurance, so unless you want to fork over $240 cash, we can't see her.  (I'm paraphrasing here.)

Me:  So, you are telling me that you just now called the insurance company, and after a week of prepping, I have to get my daughter, who thinks she is on her way to the equivalent of a party for her teeth, out of the car and tell her we aren't going??  

Horrible Dentist Office:  Yeah, sorry about that.

Me:  That's horrible.  She's 3, and she's ready to go to the dentist.  We are in the CAR, on the way, and you are JUST calling me right now??

What I'd have directed LL to do if we went to get a sticker.

Horrible Dentist Office:  Well, you can bring her in and we'll give her a sticker?

Me, after a very long pause, trying to figure out if she is putting me on, or if this pediatric office just doesn't have much experience with kids:  Um...no, I'm going to pass.

So then I took Lakeland to see a movie, where she crushed an entire box of Sour Patch Kids and half a bag of popcorn.  Pretty much the opposite of a visit to the dentist.