Your children’s first dental appointment is a big step in the development of an overall oral health. We want to help you navigate this process and take the unknown away from this great experience. Our goal is to make your child’s first visit all about him or her and make the entire visit as easy for the parents as possible. Little Smiles is a place where children feel-at-home and start their journey of a lifetime of good oral health. The dental and emotional needs of young children are very specific. These needs are better addressed when we only focus on your child. By being prepared for this first visit, we are able to build trust and confidence with our patients while educating parents and caregivers.
Getting your child ready for the first dental appointment
Promoting a positive attitude towards oral hygiene at home helps your child feel familiar with the importance of dental health. Explain to your child how important it is to keep their teeth and gums healthy and how our dental team is going to help them with that.
Many children are nervous about dental visits because they don’t know what to expect. We suggest exploring our Little Smiles website, Facebook, Instagram or reading a good first trip to the dentist book (peppa pig, Dr. Seuss) are all great way to start. Here is a link to more information to help prepare your child for their first visit to our kind and compassionate team.
Getting ready for your child first dental appointment
Pediatric dentistry focuses on children and special needs patients. When you make the decision to have your child be seen by a pediatric dentist, you are giving he or she a great gift. Once you make this decision, it is easy to contact us or you can request an appointment online or call us directly.
At the first call, we want to make sure we answer all your questions. Also we will ask you some information to help you make the first visit an easy process.
Information that we may ask for could be:
- Patient name
- Patient date of birth
- Phone number
- Parents name
- Employer
- Dental insurance carrier
- Dental insurance subscriber
- Email address
Once your appointment is scheduled, our staff will work on the background to get ready for your child’s first appointment. As part of the background work, we will ask you to fill welcome forms online. This will speed up your check in time, so your child is seen as soon as possible. If you are not able to fill the forms online, we will provide you with a tablet to fill them in at the office the day of the appointment.
Before your child’s appointment day, you may have multiple phone interactions with our staff. This interaction could be with our schedule coordinator to go over details and confirming your appointment. Also, you may receive a call from our insurance coordinator. She will be helping you get the most out of your insurance coverage.
Being prepared for the first visit will help your child during the entire appointment.
Once you arrive to Little Smiles your child can enjoy movies and games in our lobby while you do the short checking process. At that time, we will ask for a photo ID and dental insurance card (if apply). Our schedule coordinator will go over some detail of the services that we will provide. The last part of the checking in will be signing the online forms and we will take a picture of your child for his dental record.
With these few steps, your child will be on his or her way for our clinical area.
The dental cleaning is done in a fun environment for your child!
The best way to start a child dental experience is with a hygiene appointment. It will help your child get comfortable with the dental team. During this part of the appointment, your child will be joined by one of our dental assistants. She will walk your child step by step through the entire dental appointment. We encourage our parents to join their child.
Before we start the dental checkup, one of our assistants, will sit down and help your child feel more relaxed by describing to your child about how we plan on cleaning and counting their teeth by using kid-friendly language.
In some occasions, your child may be intimidated by the dental chair. And that is ok. If this happens we may ask the parent to sit in the chair in front of the doctor and do what we call a "knee to knee" where the child may sit or lay on their parents lap during the cleaning/exam.
During the exam, we will check how the teeth are coming in, check to see whether or not there any cavities or any signs of cavity development and how to prevent them. Also, we will check your child's bite, and look for any potential problems with the gums, jaw, and oral tissues.
During the appointment, we will educate parents about oral health care basics for children and discuss dental developmental issues and answer any questions.
A job well done!
Your child’s dental appointment can not be completed without a price for their work well done. Once your child is finished with their dental exam and fluoride treatment, he/she will get a token that can be used to get a prize from our toy machine. For our youngest patients, this is the highlight of the appointment.
Your child’s appointment is almost completed. The last part of the visit is to see our Treatment Coordinator to schedule your next six months recare appointment. She will also schedule any follow up appointments recommended by the doctor.
Summary
The fear of the unknown can make us avoid some necessary experiences. We don’t want this to be the case for your child’s first dental appointment. At Little Smiles, we will work hard to make this experience as easy as possible and provide you the necessary knowledge and help to make this process stress free. Having a stream line experience will have your child feel more comfortable and prepared for the start of a great dental experience. If you have any questions please feel free to call us or request an appointment online.
