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More than 60% of dental patients of all ages experience fear related to visiting the dentist.
To begin with, we’ll discuss your child’s fears and anxieties with you and with them, and learn about any past negative experiences they may have had with other pediatric dentists in Cypress or Katy. This lets Dr. Julia or Dr. Chun learn more about the unique challenges facing your little one.
We use a child-friendly approach to dental care that involves explaining different steps of the procedure, using language that keeps your child feeling safe, and behavior management techniques that keep your child from feeling overwhelmed or scared during their treatment.
We also offer sedation for kids, including minimal sedation with laughing gas, IV and oral conscious sedation, and even general anesthesia. Depending on the extent of your child’s anxiety, sedation may be recommended during their appointment.
Whether or not you opt for sedation, your child will get expert dental care from Dr. Julia or Dr. Chun. You are welcome to remain in the room with your child to make sure they feel comfortable while they get treatment.
As pediatric specialists, Dr. Chun and Dr. Julia can perform common treatments like fillings quickly, and make sure your child gets the dental care they need to keep their smile healthy and strong.
There are many different ways that our dental teams in Cypress and Katy can minimize discomfort and keep your child feeling comfortable. We are fully trained on child-friendly care techniques and take an informative approach to dental care, so that your child can understand what’s happening during their appointment at Cavity Patrol Pediatric Dentistry.
Our dental team also uses advanced tools and techniques to deliver local anesthesia and numbing injections, ensuring your child’s mouth is completely numb during their procedure. Even if your child is afraid of needles, we can numb their mouth properly and keep them comfortable.
Both Dr. Julia and Dr. Chun are board-certified pediatric dentists in Cypress and Katy, and have received advanced training in sedation, special needs dentistry, hospital dentistry, and other such subjects. Thanks to this depth of expertise, your child will be in good hands at our office. Contact our office today to get started!
If your child complains of a tender or sore tooth that seems sensitive to chewing, hot or cold foods and drinks, or sugary foods, they may have a cavity. You may even be able to see visual signs of tooth decay. Look for brown or black spots or visible holes or pits in the tooth. If you notice these issues, contact your child’s dentist right away for an appointment.
Food that’s good for your child’s body is usually good for their teeth, too. Fibrous vegetables like broccoli, whole grains, milk, yogurt, lean meats, and fresh fruits are all great for growing teeth.
You should avoid overly-processed and sugary or starchy foods like chips, cookies, gummy candies, fruit juice, and soda. The bacteria that cause decay love to feed on simple starches and sugar, so these can contribute to the risk of cavities.
Fluoride is a natural mineral that helps “remineralize” and strengthen teeth that have been affected by minor decay. Your child’s dentist will likely recommend fluoride treatments during their regular dental checkups, but your child can also benefit from using an ADA-approved fluoride toothpaste twice a day. Making regular brushing with fluoridated toothpaste a habit can keep your child’s smile bright for years to come.
At-home dental care is important for your child’s oral health, but so is a regular visit with your child’s dentist. Seeing a dentist every 6 months helps you catch potential issues like cavities early, and avoid further dental health problems. In the long run, this can save you a lot of time and money, so make sure that you and your child visit the dentist consistently to get the oral care they need.
Dental anxiety is an incredibly common condition that afflicts patients of all ages, but it is especially common in children who have had traumatic or negative dental experiences. Kids are also very impressionable and susceptible to the influence of others.
If they hear people around them, especially in their immediate families, speaking negatively about the dentist, about how it hurts, or that they are afraid of the dentist, they will quickly pick up on these negative feelings and internalize them.
This is why it’s so important to take your child to the dentist at an early age, to foster familiarity and trust. When children are not exposed to the dental setting with a positive and trustworthy dentist, it can make a formidable impression on them that sticks and fosters fear.
There are many reasons your child may feel fearful of the dentist, including having special needs, generalized anxiety disorder, claustrophobia, a fear of not being in control, not liking others in their personal space, fear of the unknown, and worrying about feeling pain.
While dental anxiety is quite common among patients of all ages, when it causes avoidance of the dentist altogether, this is considered a severe form of anxiety that is considered a dental phobia.
If your child has dental anxiety or a dental phobia, it’s good to know that we can help them work through this. Most children grow out of dental anxiety but if it is severe, it may take some intervention by a dentist to help accommodate them by desensitizing them to the dental environment and with the use of medication like dental sedation.
Allowing your child to continually avoid the dentist is not going to improve their anxiety, it will only exacerbate it. It’s important to start by speaking positively about the dentist and providing your child with positive reinforcement.
Give them rewards if they sit through a dental appointment that they’re scared of. We can help alter the environment to make them more comfortable if they are sensitive to light or need a longer appointment so we can go slower.
Dental sedation is a useful tool in treating dental anxiety because it relaxes your child, melts away negative emotions, helps them cooperate during the procedure, fall asleep, or even be unconscious. Another advantage of sedation is that it reduces anxiety of future dental appointments because of the amnesiac effect of sedation. Your child won’t remember anything afterward, even if they chose a conscious form of sedation.
Be a role model for your child when it comes to modeling positive dental behaviors. Avoid speaking negatively about the dentist, even if you have dental anxiety yourself. Talk to your child about how the dentist’s job is to keep their teeth healthy, breath smelling fresh, and smile looking white.
Prepare your child for dental appointments by reassuring them that the dentist is going to count how many teeth they have so they can know how many they have and that they’re going to keep their teeth clean by scrubbing them and making them feel nice.
Avoid too many details and don’t talk about dental tools like drills or needles. As pediatric dentists, we’re specially trained in how to communicate with children at Cavity Patrol Pediatric Dentistry. We can help alleviate their fears with the Tell-Show-Do method.
During the appointment, we’ll prepare your child by telling them what we’re going to do, showing them how it will be done, and then performing it on the child. This helps them feel in the loop without any unnecessary or inappropriate details.
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