4 Tips On Making Dental Visits Fun For Your Kids
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Fun Dental Visits For Kids
With your help, dental visits can be a positive – even fun – experience for your kids. Our staff will spend time with your kids to help them feel comfortable and understand what they can expect. As parents, you can help us make their next visit a successful one by working with us to accomplish this goal!
Have you ever wondered endlessly how to make dental visits with your kids bearable? Did you ever hope to make it fun too? The truth is that this is not impossible. Dental visits can be a fun and educational experience for your kids.
The dental staff are trained to make your children comfortable. They understand what you are going through and are ready to meet your expectations. However, the success of your kid’s dental visits still lies in your hands. You will need to work closely with the staff and the doctor and aim to make your kid’s dental visits a success.
Where to start? Here are some tips that you can follow.
Be positive
This means that you have to make your kid feel that going to the dentist is a good thing. As much as possible, don’t answer questions you are not sure of the answer. Use positive words like fun, easy, play, prizes, when you do talk to your kid and answer any of their questions. Be consistently fun, soft spoken and playful. Also try to educate your child on the importance of proper oral hygiene and how we can help them have healthy teeth and gums by giving them the dental care they need.
Never say words indicating pain
In relation to being positive, you need to avoid at all cost, words that will indicate to your child that they may experience any pain or discomfort. You don’t want to make them scared before their dental visit. Don’t use words such as pain, needle, shot or hurt. You don’t want your kids to be anxious about the visit.
Be extravagant with your praise
After the visit, praise your child. Highlight the positive points of the visit and the fun you have together.
Never ask questions that negate the experience
Questions such as “Are you okay?” or “Did it hurt?” or “Were you scared?” as these can only mean that the experience was something hurtful and your child will see it as something to be scared about. This will make dental visits in the future scary for your child.
You have to feel at ease with the visits too. You really don’t know how your child thinks about anesthesia. They may think that numb tongue or lip is a good thing and that it may be fun. But if you see that they are uncomfortable about it, then reassure them that it’s just sleeping right now and it will wake up soon and the feeling will go away.
One very important thing is to give positive feedback with your own experience to the dentist. Never say anything negative in front of your child about going to the dentist. For example, never say “I hate going to the dentist” or “It hurt” …
Here are some ways you can describe dental words to your child:
Instead of a cavity or decay , say “bug in your tooth” or “a sick tooth”
Instead of injection or shot, say “Sleepy juice for your tooth”
Instead of drilling, say “clean the sugar bugs out of your tooth”
Instead of filling, say “will put a silver star in your tooth” if the filling is amalgam. If it’s a white filling, say “white star”
If you need help with any of this or have any questions, please feel free to ask one of our knowledgeable and friendly staff at 323-771-7254.
By Ladan Zinati
24 Comments
I think that these tips on trying to keep your child comfortable at the dentist office is very helpful. The last section about ways to describe dental words to your child is very helpful. As a child, my parents did not do this and it only caused me to be more anxious.
Hi Greg. Yes, it really helps to talk to children in a “different” language that we would for adults. It really helps explain things to them in a non-threatening way.
Excellent advice. I have a 9 yr old. When he was younger he had to be put to sleep for fillings and it was horrible! It was like he was dead in my arms. Now, he is calm, relaxed and had no cavities :)
Wendy, I myself don’t like the idea of putting children to sleep. I think it is unnecessary. Most kids can be calmed down by spending some time with them.
I have a 3 year old daughter and although she love brushing her teeth going to the dentist is the exact opposite. She cried just by the sight of the dentist. I think those ways to describe dental words could really help calm my daughter and at the same time learn from it in simple term.
I have a 3 year old daughter and although she love brushing her teeth, going to the dentist is the exact opposite. She cried just by the sight of the dentist. I think those ways to describe dental words could really help calm my daughter and at the same time learn from it in simple term.
I just discovered that my five year old has a cavity. I am definitely going to use your advise about framing the experience in a positive way when taking him to the dentist.
Sorry to hear that he has a cavity, but great to hear that you can take advantage of my suggestions!
Heya i’m for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It truly helpful & it helped me out a lot. I’m hoping to provide something back and help others like you helped me.
Welcome to my blog. I am happy I was of help to you. Come back any time.
I have a son who is petrified of his visit to the dentist tomorrow, and after reading this article, I have already tried some of the techniques listed to try and make it a more positive experience for him. He has already slightly come off the petrified side of things and almost is looking forward to it now, maybe not so much looking forward to it, but he isn’t thinking about it as much as he was previously. Great article, highly recommended!
Hi James. Great to hear to be of help. I would love to know the outcome after his visit tomorrow!
It is not easy to make positive a child for regular doctor visit. Dental visit is the hardest one. After reading these advice I am thinking to try these, maybe next visit will be easy for me to make them more comfortable. Thanks for the article.
Maksud, you are very welcome!
Terrific article. It is so important to make going to the dentist a positive experience for children.
Taking my kids to the dentist is never a fun experience. Thanks to these tips, being positive with them and using alternate words has worked and it’s usually fine now. Especially since they get a sticker and fun new brush at the end :)
I am a first time mom and my sons first dental visit will be coming up soon. Having no experience with this I was feeling nervous. But reading your article I found some good advise on how to be positive and try to make it a fun experience for him. Thank you for the wonderful tips :)
Rose, you are very welcome. Glad to be if help. Let me know how his first visit went!
I have three adorable nieces that i always have problems with whenever a dentist appointment is concerned. I am glad to have read this article as it help me a lot on how to make their Dentist appointments something to look forward to and not something to make them scared.
Great tips hoping that some will be useful for me because my son absolutely hates doctors, dentist, or anybody in an office. I can never get him to sit still and he throws these horrendous fits because he is so terrified. I’m going to try doing the renaming the dentist words to see if that helps.
Hi Samantha. Yes, try them and make sure his dentist also is kid friendly. Let me know how the visit goes.
I’ve always tried to teach our children as much as possible about the things that matter and taking care of themselves. I’m wondering if it’s never too late can I teach my kids who are scared of the dentist now when they’ve been a couple times and already have formed an opinion of the dentist?
Gwar, no it is not too late. Of course it will be more difficult because they already have had an experience and yes, they have formed an opinion, but you can gradually undo that and what will help is find a dentist who likes to treat kids and makes their visits comfortable and fun.
[…] Most kids have some type of fear when they visit a physician or a dentist. However there are methods to actually make their dental brows through favorable and actually fun for them. With the help of great dental team and the parents, this can easily be achieved. I will go over 4 methods to achieve this. […]