Your First Visit
Preparing for your First Visit
Thank you for considering The Children’s Dental Centre as your child’s dental home. As your child’s trusted dental specialists, we will help them establish a lifetime of good oral health habits. We also help to educate parents on potential and anticipated dental issues as their children grow, provide preventive and urgent dental care, and overall oral health care.
The purpose of an initial visit is to create a rapport with your child based on trust. Here they will learn that we are compassionate, truthful and patient. We understand some kids get more anxious than others, but we assure you that we are trained for any uneasy moments.
We also know that your child’s visit to our office may actually cause some anxiety for you too! As parents, we have many concerns about how our child may or may not be able to cope during an appointment. We will also help you in an encouraging, safe and friendly way to get through this time. Every person on our team is here to help support you with whatever you may need.
What a Visit Will Look Like
We ask that you please arrive 15 minutes earlier than your scheduled appointment to register and provide us with any information from previous dental visits that you feel would be helpful for us to know. It is also important for us to know about any current medications (including dosages) that your child is taking.
The visit will start with a “Caries Risk Assessment” to see whether your child’s teeth have or are showing early signs of cavities. Our team will also provide you with oral hygiene instructions and guidance regarding diet, nutrition and oral habits, such as thumb sucking or soother use.
With a very young child, we will introduce you to the “knee-to-knee” examination method. This simply means that your toddler will sit on your lap while we work, unless they are ready and comfortable to sit on a dental chair.
Even if your child is not a toddler, dental anxiety is very common, and for some children, dental anxiety can turn into a dental phobia. Whether this is your child’s very first visit (no matter their age), or you are being referred to us from a family dentist, our approach is the same: we will establish good communication and trust with you and your child, gain valuable medical and social history information on your child, and prepare a personalized plan to help create a positive experience for everyone involved.
After the first visit, we typically schedule regular check-ups every six months. It is important to remember that dental issues can arise and escalate quickly in children, which is why regular appointments are vital at a young age.
If you feel that your child could benefit from a complimentary pre-first visit tour of our friendly office, please call to arrange a time with us.
Thank you for thinking of us, and we look forward to meeting you soon.