The dental care your child receives during each stage of their growth and development is essential to building a solid foundation for good oral health throughout the rest of their lives. For this reason, dental care is not only important, but finding a good dentist who specializes in dental care for children, a pediatric dentist, is vital to ensuring your child has a healthy start, positive experiences at the dentist's office, and a strong foundation of good oral health and oral hygiene habits.
Understanding that your child needs a good pediatric dentist is simple, knowing how to identify the dentist that is the right one for your child can be more challenging. To select the right pediatric dentist for your child, we recommend considering the following tips.
The most important factors to consider when choosing a pediatric dentist are credentials and experience. Pediatric dentistsmust complete additional education and training that prepares them specifically for treating young patients in the various stages of development that occur from infancy up to adulthood. Seeing a pediatric dentist, specifically, ensures that your child is visiting an age-appropriate specialist.
Additionally, consider how long your dentist has been practicing and look for the ongoing education, training, and experience that your pediatric dentist has completed and participates in. You can also consider the associations and memberships to which your dental office belongs.
In addition to specialized training and credentials, another benefit of visiting a pediatric dentist is that the office atmosphere should also be kid-friendly. You'll want to select a pediatric dentist with an office environment where your child feels comfortable, happy, and relaxed. Your child might even look forward to visiting an especially fun office to see their pediatric dentist. Apart from keeping your child relaxed and entertained, pediatric dental offices are designed to help children develop positive associations with dental care and visiting the dentist. We take care to ensure children experience as little stress and fear as possible in the dental chair for this reason.
Preventative care is important throughout life, but it is especially important during childhood when oral health problems that develop early in life have a greater chance of worsening and becoming increasingly serious in adulthood. Look for a pediatric dentist who emphasizes the importance of preventative care such as routine professional cleanings and examinations, dental x-rays, proactive care, professional fluoride treatments, dental sealants, nutrition, and age-appropriate patient education.
Children can receive the best continuity in care from a pediatric dentist who offers a wide array of comprehensive servicesand treatments under one roof. Look for a pediatric dentist who provides general and preventative care in addition to sedation dentistry and restorative, cosmetic, and orthodontic treatments. While you might not plan on your child needing additional kinds of dental care, it will be much simpler for you and less stressful for your child if they can receive all the care they need with the dental care team and in the office with which they are already familiar and comfortable.
Word of mouth remains the best form of advertising because hearing about a dentist from someone who has experienced them first-hand is an excellent way to find a tried-and-true dental care provider. We recommend that parents ask other parents for recommendations in addition to reading about patient experiences and researching reviews of pediatric dentistsin their area. This is an excellent way to learn about the staff, dentists, office environment, quality of care, and other children's experiences.
Convenience and location shouldn't be the top considerations if it means compromising the quality of care. However, they are still important factors to consider when choosing a pediatric dentist. Our lives are busy, and life with a child is even busier. So, it's best to choose a pediatric dentist that isn't too far out of your way. This will ensure you can always bring your child to their dental appointments and never need to skip an appointment because it takes too long or costs too much in transportation to get to the dentist's office.
When selecting a pediatric dentist for your child, we strongly encourage parents to stop by the office or schedule a visit with the dentist before their child's actual first appointment - and we welcome you to bring your child along, too! It's always nice for a child to have the opportunity to meet their new dentist and dental hygienist and become familiar with the office environment while you have a chance to check out our office, talk with the team, and learn more about our services.
Cost is an importance consideration, too. Before choosing a pediatric dentist be sure to talk with the office staff about the cost of care and whether they accept your dental insurance provider.
At SuperKids, we strive every day to achieve excellence in pediatric dentistry with a sole focus on providing oral health to infants, toddlers, children, tweens, teens, and young adults. With five locations around the D.C. area, we provide convenience in care, too. Each of our offices is designed to feel welcoming and comfortable while creating a fun atmosphere and positive associations with dental care.
To learn more about our team of pediatric dentists, to schedule a time to get acquainted with our office, or to schedule your child's next dental visit, we welcome you to contact us today.
We can’t wait to meet you! Contact one of our five convenient locations around the DC area.
We are excited to announce the GRAND OPENING of our fifth Superkids office in Mt Vernon, VA. Accepting new patients starting January 16th, 2023!
