Have you ever had the phobia of visiting a dentist, whether during your youthful years or even up to the time you were older? Perhaps, you still have that fear. If so, you would be glad to know that modern dentists are committed to eliminating such irrational fear in dental patients. This is particularly so for dental practitioners dealing with young children.
Ingraining in your child the habit of having regular dental visits from an early age is something that will set him/ her up for a future of good oral health. This is something that is so important that the Australian government set up the Child Dental Benefits Schedule in early 2014, to ensure proper dental care for all children between the ages of 2 to 17 years.
However, the only thing that could mess up this noble pursuit is if your child develops a fear of dental visits from the onset. Therefore, you must try as much as possible to prevent any incidence that would occasion such a fear in your child. Thankfully, your children's doctor can help you achieve this goal.
How To Handle Your Kid's Dental Visit
It's never a wise thing to rudely surprise your child with a sudden dental visit, which he/ she was never expecting. Even you wouldn't be too happy if someone gave you such a rude surprise.
The best way to go about it is to prepare your child psychologically for what is going to happen at the "strange" doctor's office. If your child has some fears or misgivings about it, you need to explain - in a manner the he/ she understands - that there is really nothing to fear. You can even try to get him/ her used to the idea of going to the "strange" doctor's facility, by organizing a prior tip to the area in which the facility is located, so as to create a bit of familiarity with the place.
Even after you manage to get your child into the dental facility without any protests, you should continue trying to make the whole experience an enjoyable one by offering rewards for good behaviour. Of course, an expert dental practitioner would always have a child-friendly facility. This is much more than just having an interesting and captivating layout of the health facility, but also having staff that know exactly how to treat children and put them at ease.
Paediatric dentists are well-skilled in handling young children, even those who don't have the capacity to respond to the simplest of instructions. Even if your child cannot comply with a simple instruction to "open up", such a health practitioner would have a few tricks to get your child to do just that. Such strategies involve aspects as playful distractions that can easily entice the kid or soothing conversations to put the little guy at ease.
Understandably, there are quite a number of things inside a dental office that would startle a young child. This could be something as simple as the doctor's strange white coat or the light which such a doctor intends to shine onto your child's open mouth. Moreover, kids are normally restless and playful; hence, they need lots of distractions to keep them occupied. A competent medical practitionerunderstands all these, and he/ she knows just how to deal with all these aspects.
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