minimizing discomfort and helping kids build a positive successful experience in the dental chair.
Nitrous nose on, kids movie jamming above our heads, anesthetic injection completed, and my little patient threw his fist in the air and exclaimed, "I love the dentist!". A giggle from my team followed, and you could see the anxiety melt away from the parent as we began treatment.
Making visits fun for kids is the second most important part of my job, following only keeping them safe and healthy. There are many aspects of the visit that we cannot change, but here we will talk about what we do to ensure that we minimize the discomfort and help them build positive successful experience in the dental chair.
1. Atmosphere: When children enter a dental office they can feel nervous, maybe they are remembering stories about how scary it can be. As soon as they enter, they are greeted with a wall full of kids art work, disney music overhead, a smile, and their own set of crayons to add to our current welcome craft project. Busy hands let them relax,warm up to the space and reduce anxiety, and add a bit of fun while parents are checking in. Parent bonus: your little one is distracted long enough you can do any paperwork you need to complete.
2. Distraction: Throughout visits we utilize silly noises, singing, story-telling and even movies to help kiddos cope with unusual sensations. We can't help that the spin brush feels unusual on their teeth, but we can make it fun.
3. Smells: Throughout the office we utilize medical grade air-filtration, which clears away any lingering “dental” smells, and also airborne bacteria, virus and particles. We also use kid flavors whenever they are available for all of our products. Nitrous noses in sassy strawberry, and orange dream smell delicious and kids happily allow us to place them on their noses while they take deep breaths. These small changes can help kids tolerate unusual aspects of being at the dentist.
4. Tastes: We do our best to pick kid flavors whenever possible. Melon fluoride varnish, blueberry or watermelon prophy toothpaste, strawberry reminerialzing toothpaste to take home if they are higher risk for cavities. But what about the things that just taste yucky, like the actual filling materials or anesthetic? We have iso-dry intraoral suction devices available in every operatory that allow us to work on teeth and protect kids tongues from sour or bitter tastes by suctioning out any tastes before they touch the tongue. These devices have been a game changer for my practice. They allow my patients to have a much better experience, and also allow me to complete my work faster, and are more comfortable than many alternatives as they are made with a soft, flexible silicone material. But what about the tastes we just can’t avoid? Like the anesthetic drop that made it to the tongue, or the taste of the tooth cement we use for crowns? Enter the best tool for combating lingering tastes: sugar-free popsicles. I can’t take credit for this genius idea, it is one I borrowed from NC Pediatric Dentistry when I was working in North Carolina. Whenever a kid has a taste that they just can’t tolerate, we can take a popsicle break to allow them to wash away the bitter flavor with something tropical and delicious. I can’t even tell you the number of tears popsicles have prevented in my years of treating children, as it overwhelms tastes in seconds, and also allows children to feel that the dentist is empathizing with the sensation they are experience. And that we believe them and are taking measures to resolve their discomfort. This builds trust and allows the procedure to proceed more quickly and easily moving forward, as the child has experienced that when they had a concern they were listened to, and accommodated.
5. Feeling: Kids are used to exploring. They love to see how things work, what they are like, how they feel. By allowing kids to touch as many of our tools as we can safely allow, it reduces anxiety of the unknown. This can include the spinning prophy angle we use to for teeth cleaning, letting it bounce on their finger. Or even feeling the air and the vibration of the drill without a bur in place, allowing them to feel the air blowing on their hand without anything sharp in sight.
6. Play: There are a few objectives when a child is at the dentist, but none of those are being serious or stoic. When getting height measurements, we have a chart with fun kid items and kids are delighted to see if they are as tall as the hot air balloon or volcano. When taking x-rays, choosing between puppies or owls for their lead apron brings smiles to many faces. When brushing, singing or making silly noises brings giggles with the new sensations. When kids are nervous, letting them have turns playing dentist on their favorite stuffed animal or on our toy dinosaur lets them become more comfortable to new experiences in removed and less threatening manner. Meeting active kids halfway by letting them wiggle, dance or jump between moments when we need to be still lets them express jittery emotions.
7. Anesthetic: We often use three types of anesthetic for our kiddos who need treatment. The first is often nitrous or laughing gas, which they breathe to feel more relaxed and less anxious. The second is a numbing jelly placed by their tooth with a soft cotton q-tip, once again in delicious fruity flavors. This numbs the gums near the tooth and makes injections more comfortable. The third is an injection of local anesthetic that allows the teeth and gums in part of their mouth to become numb, and allow treatment without pain. Often kids are having fun watching a movie, their gums are already numb from the jelly, and with a little singing or wiggling of their cheek kids don’t even know that the injection happened until their face starts feeling funny a few minutes later. We also have invested in a CO2 Solea Laser that allows us to complete many fillings without numbing or shot!
Interested in seeing if our tactics can make the dentist fun, easy and successful for your family? Call us today 720-678-9401.
