Tips For Making Dental Appointments A Positive Thing For Your Child

Posted on: 29 June 2015

You want to make dental appointments as easy as possible on your young child and yourself. Luckily, there are some tips you can follow that will help to make trips to the dentist something your child doesn't stress over. Try following the tips below:

Start as early as possible – You can begin taking your child to the dentist as soon as their first teeth begin to make an appearance. Along with making sure everything looks good, this visit will also help to establish a positive experience for your child regarding dental visits. From this point forward, make sure you take them in regularly and don't have long gaps in their dental visits.

Don't get into detailed discussions – As your child gets older, they will start to ask you questions about their up and coming dental visits.  You won't want to say something that accidentally triggers a negative response from them. Therefore, you want to answer them as vaguely as possible. Leave out words like "shot" or "hurt".

Get your child interested in dentistry – If your child starts asking questions about their dental appointment, use it as a learning experience. Study some general dentistry articles on painless procedures with your child. Teach them how teeth grow, what the different names of the teeth are, when their adult teeth should come in, what adult teeth usually come in first, and other dental related topics. By getting them interested in learning more about dentistry, you can help them to start looking forward to their appointment.

Don't let others talk about the dentist – Friends and family members may want to help your child feel better about going to the dentist by telling them about their own experiences. However, this can actually work against you. If they say the wrong thing, your child can end up with a fear they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Help your child work through their fear – If your child does develop a fear of the dentist, you can help them move past the fear by:

  • Taking them for a meet and greet with the dentist.
  • Giving them a journal to express their worries in.
  • Planning a fun day for the two of you after their dental visit. (This will make the day one they start to look forward to.

By following the advice in this article you will be able to get your child to the dentist without an argument. You may even see they start becoming more concerned about proper oral hygiene. For more information on dentistry, visit websites such a http://www.charlottesvilledentistry.com/.

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