Making your kids first Dental visit a successful and happy one !
The first dental visit of a child is full of anxiety for the parents as well as the child. It often depends on the parents, as to how they have prepared the child for the visit and whether the dental experience will be a pleasant or traumatic one .
A child is definitely not going to be comfortable in an alien environment of dental surgery. And they normally have great apprehension and fear of the unknown.
Best age to plan visit to the Dentist
The first dental visit of a child should be any time after the emergence of the first few teeth, also if you notice any black spots on teeth, you should visit a dentist immediately, it might be an emerging cavity!
Prepare your child for a visit to the dentist
Parents play an important role in preparing the child for the dentist visit. The parents by themselves being apprehensive may unknowingly instill fear in the child’s mind and resistance for treatment.
A few steps that could help are –
- Prepare the child to be comfortable in the dental surrounding, start preparing the child a couple of days prior to the appointment. At no time, the child is to be made scared of a dentist by telling the child that we’ll ask the dentist to remove your teeth etc.
- Show nice Dental cartoons or how dentists help little children ! Tell them before hand that it is nice to visit a
- Parents should speak about going to the dental appointments for themselves too and how a dentist helped them.
- Never tell “ horror Dental stories”, use only positive connotation only (both before and after each visit).
- Do not talk of the words like drilling, painful, hurt, pain, injection and needle, etc. with dentist word so kids do not correlate these two.
- One of the best ways to prepare your child is to start playing ‘Dentist-Dentist at home’, for example ‘counting of teeth’, ‘shape of teeth’, singing brushing songs while brushing teeth.
- Use words like the dentist uncle will tickle your teeth’, ‘will be painting vitamins on your teeth to make them strong, he will make them shining and sparkly etc etc ’. These small measures will definitely aid in building the confidence in the child
- Ensure that the first appointment of the child should be to let your child experience the dental office for a ‘visual inspection and a joy ride on the chair’. A good dentist generally does not start any treatment on the first visit and they like to get to know the child and befriend them. Having said all this, the dentist also plays a major role in alleviating the fear from the child’s mind.
The Dental Surgeons are specially trained to be patient friendly and use techniques so that the child feels ‘NO PAIN’ at all. In essence, the ultimate aim is to keep children absolutely comfortable, and to minimize anxiety when they visit the dental office to ensure that the traumatic experience does not create long term fear against a dental visit .
How to Choose A Kid Dentist?
A pedodontist or a “kid’s dentist” will be a better choice as he understands the problems of kids better and is well qualified in this field.
You should choose a dentist who is patient, friendly and dedicates time and attention. The dentist must know about child behavior techniques, growth and development. All these will help in your child getting the best possible dental care.
Parents should be involved in the treatment process and ensure that the clinic which has toys, colors, cartoons, etc.to keep them happy !
In this way , parents can ensure that the Dental visit is an enjoyable one and now a harrowing visit !
For more consultation and answers visit a Partha Dental Clinic near you, especially in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana !