subject: How To Get Your Childs Dentist To Become His New Best Friend [print this page] One of the biggest challenges faced by Medical professionals in Vancouver, especially those in the field of Pediatrics, Dentistry and Oncology is dealing with children and getting them to sit through a medical procedure peacefully.
As a parent too, getting your child to visit his/her Doctor or Dentist is nothing short of a nightmare. Most children fear Doctors, more specifically Dental ones. The idea of sitting on that chair with multiple instruments being inserted into their mouths is a terrifying experience that they most definitely would like to avoid, as far as they could.
Have you noticed how whenever a Dental appointment is made, your child invariably falls sick or fakes an important homework assignment simply to get away?
We cant necessarily blame the child though; we all went through it when we were younger. A dental appointment, if not scary, is plain icky and sometimes annoying with the drill in our mouth and the horrid paste-y after taste that leaves us nauseous.
Here is a list of things to do before, during and after making an appointment with your childs dentist.
Dos
1. Tell your child well in advance that his teeth need cleaning or cavities need filling and you will thus be making an appointment at the Dentists office. Dont just inform him a day prior and expect him to deal with it.
2. Convince your child that he is his friend and will not harm him. If the procedure does hurt, he can stop with just a show of hand.
3. Reward your child after a successful appointment. Tell him that he deserves a gift for being such a lovely patient. Make sure your Dentist hands over the gift; this will make him look good.
4. Always set aside some extra time before the appointment, just in case your child needs some convincing or explaining. In a bid to make it to the appointment on time, you may become hyper and yell. That wont work, being tolerant will.
5. If your child is really young, take along his favorite toy or DVD to play at the dentists office. Distraction always works for the younger ones.
6. Make the appointment a fun afternoon out. Tell your child that you can go for ice-cream after or maybe even go to the mall before to pick a book that he can read while waiting at the clinic.
Donts
1. Do not shout or get angry when your child creates a fuss or throws a fit about visiting the dentist. Remember you went through it too.
2. Do not make injections look like monsters, Do not threaten If you dont sit still, I will ask them to give you an injection This way, when they do need to get injected, they are even more fearful.
3. Do not show them horror pictures of what a missed appointment can do to their teeth, the children are scared already, the last thing they need is to see is frightening and creepy images of crooked mouths and protruding teeth.
4. Do not make statements like If you eat that candy, the Dentists going to take all your teeth out That does not solve any purpose, the child is going to go ahead and eat the candy anyway, hoping to deal with the teeth bit later. But when later does come, he is petrified that his teeth will be yanked out.
If you prepare him in the correct way, your child can take to his Dental Doctor quite warmly and maybe even become best friends with him.
