Pro-Tips for Parents: Dealing with the Dentist
There is no doubt that dentists are an important part of health care. They keep your smiles healthy and help fix your teeth when you break them or have cavities. Unfortunately, even if they are just doing their job and helping, a trip to the dentist can be very unpleasant. While as an adult, we can see the importance of these uncomfortable procedures, it is very easy to see why a young child may resent or even fear their dentist. When this happens, a child may become reluctant to sit in the chair and dread appointments. While this can be quite a struggle, it is still important that your child sees they visit the dentist when they need to. Lucky, there are some things you can do in order to try to ease the child’s anxiety as well as help them overcome their fear of the dentist.
Explain: While this may not always be effective, especially when it comes to very young patients, it is important to let your child know what is going on. Explain that the dentist isn’t just doing this because it is their job, but because they want you to have a healthy smile. If your child has overcome their fear of other doctors, you may want to even compare it to why they have to get a physical or booster shots. Try your best to explain the perspective of the dentist and you as a parent without undermining the child’s feelings.
Stay: A simple way to help alleviate your child’s fears is to be present with them. Even if they are on the older side, if it would help for you to go in the room with them, just go. Children often view their guardians as such -their guardian. Even if it is unpleasant, just having you there in the room with them can be comforting because they know you would never make them undergo unnecessary discomfort or pain because you have their best interests at heart.
Reward: Most pediatric dentists already incorporate this into their routines, but if they don’t, it can be very helpful to have rewards handy to give your child after their visit. Many children fear the dentist because they associate it with something they find unpleasant. When they begin to expect a fun reward at the end of their dentist visit, they may begin to associate the two. Having prizes that relate to dental care are even better at getting the child to view dental hygiene as pleasant. I would suggest fun brushes, floss, or even a little Brushies. A child will be more likely to corporate when they see a prize at the end of the journey.
A little fear from the dentist is perfectly normal, and to be honest, there are not many adults who can even honestly say that the visit doesn’t make them a little anxious. While you can’t just let your kid skip visits, there are a number of things you can do in order to try to limit their fear and make the visit as pleasant as possible.
