Pediatric Dental Services
Dental Care for Children (Those with baby teeth)
We treat children of all ages and welcome parents to bring their young children with them for their cleaning appointment. The little kids (under 3 years old) get a real kick out of sitting on mom or dad’s lap and watching as their parents get their teeth cleaned. This type of visit helps pediatric patients (children under 3 years old) gain a positive first impression of the dentist. This type of visit helps build a sense of safety in the child’s mind right away.
Common treatments for children include:
- Fillings—We predominantly do white fillings or tooth-colored fillings these days, but occasionally the best thing to do is a silver filling. It’s rare but it does happen.
- Sealants—Sealants help protect the grooves of permanent teeth before they become stained/infiltrated as a child grows up.
- Cleanings—We do a lot of cleanings for kids. We spend time educating both you and your children on how important prevention and home care is to maintaining sound oral health.
- Radiographs—Digital x-rays or ‘radiographs’ are important for seeing what can’t be seen by the naked eye. Most cavities are first detectable with these pictures. Dr. Bill follows the American Dental Association’s guidelines regarding how often these are updated.
- Fluoride Varnish—Ever wonder why kids these days don’t have the cavities that your parents or you had? Well fluoride in toothpaste, fluoride in drinking water, and fluoride varnish have a lot to do with it!
- Examinations and coordination of orthodontic referral—With every checkup we complete an exam, talk prevention and education, diet counseling, and refer to orthodontists if needed.
- Emergencies—Like anything in life, even the best plans get foiled sometimes and patients need emergency care. Whether your dental emergency is a toothache, broken tooth or worse, we can help and help fast.
If your child has broken a tooth or the tooth has completely come out, put the tooth in milk and call us right away.
We do more for pediatric dental patients than the services listed above but these are the most common. Sometimes we perform treatments called Cvek or full pulpotomies (for very severely decayed teeth), as well as extractions of baby teeth either due to decay or for orthodontics. No matter what we do we aim to help the patient and make sure the parents know what our recommendations are. We also work closely with parents regarding education and prevention; this way they can reinforce the good behaviors (both at home and at the dental office) and help reduce the bad ones.
Why you should assist your child with brushing their teeth.
Kids and adults have a very different view of what “really good” brushing is. A lot of it has to do with dexterity in your child and being attentive to where they are brushing and for how long. Check out this video of my kids attempting to brush their teeth on their own.
You can define where you are brushing by using words like:
- insides (near tongue)
- outsides (near cheek)
- topsides/upsides (surface of crown on top teeth)
- downsides (surface of crown on bottom teeth)
- frontsides (front teeth)
- backsides (back teeth)Each of these “sides” should be brushed for about 30 seconds (that 2 minute rule your dentist told you as a child was no joke!) Maybe even set up a timer and let your kids tell you when its time to switch sides. See, brushing can be fun!