As a mother, I know it’s normal for parents to feel worried when the dentist confirms the presence of cavities (also called tooth decay and dental caries) on their child’s teeth. This is quite common, and we are here to help.
Cavities been scientifically proven to be a multi-factorial disease, which means that there are many factors leading to tooth decay. The most common ones are always poor oral hygiene and dietary disturbances.
SEE ALSO: Why Does My Child Have Cavities Despite Regular Brushing?
It’s commonly seen that parents start to feel guilty when their children are diagnosed with decays.
The relief here is that as parents, we do all that we know is right in a given situation.
So, everything done was right as per the knowledge and information that parents had at any given time. This thought relieves the guilt factor.
The worry of the treatment appointment is substantially taken care of by using multiple integrated pediatric dentistry skills. Some of these are:
Behaviour management of the child – slow introduction of all tools, description of procedure in simple ways. Talking, soothing down the child, making them relaxed in the chair.
Tell Show Do (TSD) – a very common and age-old method of working with kids. It’s important that the procedure is well explained to the child in terms that they can comprehend, show the tools in a friendly way and finally use them.
Distraction with TV shows, constant talk, counting hand massage or stories!
Advanced techniques of LASERS – Erbium laser exempts the need for anesthesia which is indeed a big relief as children and parents are most phobic about the use of needles. Since lasers dentistry involves NO Needles and NO Drills, it works better in terms of child’s acceptance of the treatment.
Lasers also rule out the presence of numbing for hours after the procedure and the fear of traumatic lip or cheek bite after anesthesia. Kids can eat after fifteen to twenty minutes after the treatment.
Conscious sedation – the use of laughing gas or nitrous oxide is suggested for come children who can be very anxious and are not able to cope with the procedure. Laughing gas helps kids to stay calm and follow instructions well.
Breathing exercises – Slow, steady, focused and deep breathing keeps us strong. The same principle is utilized in the dental chair to maximize the procedure acceptance by a young child. As the dentist or the assistance counts, child takes a deep breath, and this keeps them much calmer in the chair.
Considering that all the above methods are meant only to make the entire experience pleasant for the child, the room for worry should almost vanish.
Prior to the treatment appointment, we at Dr. Michael’s, give room for parents to their research, read up, ask questions and voice out their opinions. We give them the time and information they need and encourage them to come back to us when they are ready and 100% assured.
“Information” beats “doubts”. We practice making our patients educated and well-informed about the dental procedure and the treatment details. This practice helps parents understand better. Our methods make them feel at ease and this generally adds to better cooperation and treatment acceptance by the child.
