At Pleasanton Children’s Dentistry & Braces, we strive to provide high-quality dental care for patients of all different ages and backgrounds.
If your family wants to work with our team, we want to do everything we can to cater to your child’s unique needs. To learn more about the services we offer orschedule a visit with our office, please give us a call or send us a message, and we’ll be happy to assist you.
What should I do before my child’s first dental appointment?
When you are scheduling your child’s first appointment with us, please let our team know what we can do to help your child have a positive and successful experience. That way, we will be able to add this information to their file and work with your child’s special needs from the very beginning. Some families find it helpful to bring their child in for a quick tour of the office before their actual first visit, which allows the patient to see our fun play area and meet our friendly team. This helps their first real visit to seem less foreign and more familiar.
How should I prepare my special needs child for the dentist?
We always recommend that parents talk with their children about dentistry in a very positive and calm way and avoid talking about pain, dental drills, or other scary topics. If your child is sensitive to sound or light, you are welcome to bring headphones or sunglasses for them to wear to help prevent them from becoming overwhelmed. Our treatment rooms have TVs that can help to take a patient’s mind off of what’s going on around them, or they can hold one of our toys or their toys during their treatment if that would make them feel more comfortable.
What if my child has trouble sitting still for long periods of time?
When patients cannot keep their heads still and their mouths open long enough for our team to provide adequate care, it can actually be dangerous, depending on the dental tools that we are using. With this in mind, we sometimes recommend that patients receive dental sedation to ensure both patient and staff safety. A milder form of sedation like laughing gas can often be strong enough to help relax a patient and keep them still, and our office provides oral conscious sedation and general anesthesia as well. Your child’s safety is always top of mind for our team, and we always ask for parent permission before utilizing any form of sedation.
