Services

Behavior Management

A Pediatric Dentist is a licensed professional trained in creating a welcoming and safe environment for infants, children ages 2 till 13 and teens, especially anxious children. As a Pediatric Dentist, we have many behavior management techniques that allow us to perform "magic" on children and create a positive first experience in a dental setting.

As a parent, how can you be of help before bringing your child into his/her first visit to the Pediatric Dentist? First, describe the setting as a fun place. Don't get technical and absolutely at NO time, use the words, "needle," "anesthesia," "pull out," "shot," among others. Leave that to a Pediatric Dentist at Petit Smiles who is an expert; we will get the information across, without lying to your child, but with the appropriate language. Using the right words can get us very far.

Other than having the entire office environment designed to fit your child's world, there are several techniques that, as a Pediatric Dentist, we apply that are of great help when serving infants, children and teens.

Click on the links below for more information:

• Tell – Show – Do
• Sedation
• General Anesthesia

Tell – Show – Do

As a Pediatric Dentist, we commonly use a technique called tell-show-do, where we explain the procedure, demonstrate it on the infant, child or teen’s hand, and then perform it on the mouth. This technique allows the child to visualize what he/she is going to experience once during the procedure. This is a great fun tool. With this technique, we introduce many of the objects we will be using. For example, "Mr Slurpy" is our name for the suction; the "airplane" is our name for the "drill," among many other analogies.

We combine the above with the Positive Reinforcement technique, continually complementing and praising throughout and, of course, rewarding them at the end with a special prize from our surprise toy box.