Healthy Habits – More Family Dentist Ideas

As a family dentist one goal that we hold dear, and often times understand that we will never meet, is the idea that we can get some of our patient’s teeth to such good condition that they do not require more services than regular teeth cleanings. We would prefer to see you, once a year to get the teeth checked out and the second time for an additional cleaning. However, we understand that there are many things that change with a person’s teeth over the course of a lifetime, and that is why we are privileged to be a family dentist. We often get to treat several generations of the same family, getting an in-depth knowledge of the issues that are common to all the family members while still curing the ailments that are individual. Getting to know the families we serve, is just one of the many benefits of being a dentist that specializes in family practice.Our work can start with the children. We recommend that you bring your child in as soon as the first tooth breaks through the gum. This will allow us to start working with the child on a very early schedule and makes sure that we can catch any challenges the child might have quickly. It also works to establish a relationship based on trust. Fears, including a fear of dentists, develops very young in a child’s life and if we can offset that by showing your child that we are their ally and friend, in early childhood appointments, this could help remove this fear for the rest of the child’s life.Early childhood appointments are all about cleaning the teeth, inspecting them, and typically helping the parents to enforce ideas like brushing more than once every few days. As a family dentist, we are able to remind the children that brushing twice per day is recommended. These sessions build a relationship between the dentist, the child, and the parents that can come in extremely useful if there is ever something more serious that comes up down the road.A key role that we play, as your family dentist, is to help parents formulate solutions for their children’s oral health and well-being. The number one complaint, that we hear from parents, is that their children do not want to brush their teeth. Usually this means at all, much less at least twice per day. We have found that children tend to find the process of tooth brushing an inconvenience that is incredibly boring and hence have no desire to engage. One best practice, which works well with younger children, is to incorporate story time into the routine of tooth brushing. One innovative parent made the toothbrush a brave knight that would charge into the cave of doom, the mouth, to take on the dragon breath and all the evil plaque goblins. This kind of activity gets the child to start thinking about tooth brushing as more than just a cleaning, and also educates them to some of the dangers associated with plaque and bad breath.

---

---