What is the best age to bring your child to the dentist?

By: Smileway Dental

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Most parents don’t know that it is actually never too young to have your child’s first visit to their dentist. Many times, children first visit at ages 6-7. They are already afraid of their dentist by then, because all they’re used to is seeing doctors when they are not feeling well – which means yucky medicine or needles! Can we blame them for being a little afraid and traumatised of their dentist? To make matters worse, their first visit to their dentist is to extract their loose tooth! So how can they learn to trust their dentist or doctors when, to them, every visit is associated with pain? As your dentists at Smileway Dental Clinic USJ, here are some advices we would like to offer to ease your child into trusting their dentist:

  1. Let Their First Visit Be Pain Free!

From their toddler age, you can actually bring them to us so they can learn that we are their friends – not just scary doctors!  You may even bring your toddler’s toothbrush with you, so they can brush their teeth with us at our clinic. Normally, it will be a fun experience and they will leave happy. Hence, they’ll be less afraid in their future visits when real work needs to be done. In first visits to Smileway, at toddler age, normally nothing needs to be done – we just try to educate both the child and parents on good dental hygiene. It’s all about building trust! <br>

  1. Bring Your Child For Early Age Check-Ups

From toddler age, even when only a few of their milk teeth are out, these few teeth may serve as good indicators for a number of issues such as future occlusion and appearance problems (protruding front teeth, protruding lower jaw), oral habits (thumb sucking, pencil biting) as well as bad oral hygiene (sleeping with a milk bottle, etc). Early age check-ups can help doctors stop more severe and serious problems from developing. In fact, by correcting certain habits, we can prevent more complex procedures in the future such as preventing them from having to wear braces, prevent rotten teeth, etc

  1. Don’t Use Doctors As Scary Authoritative Figures!

I have seen parents say to their children, “if you misbehave, the doctor will scold you” or the classic, “if you cry, mummy will go home and leave you here with the doctor”.Remember, even adults are afraid of doctors, so this threat isn’t going to help your child. Some adults are even afraid of doctors because they think the doctors make the decision for them – taking away their autonomy and freedom. So imagine, how would a child feel?

A more positive approach would be to let your child know that we, their dentist, are never there to hurt them, that we are there to listen to them and fix their problems. Keep reminding them that doctors are never there to hurt them – we take away their pain, not give them more pain. Your child must know that they have their own freedom and voice, that the dentist won’t do anything unless your child lets us. We can only convince them, but never force them when they are not ready.

  1. At Home, Educate Them On The Importance Of Their Smiles

Don’t only tell your child that dental health is important only when at the dentist, tell them at home too! Show them pictures of what happens when they don’t take care of their teeth  – use your iPads for more than just games – Google images of “dental cavities”. Watch them brush and spend time with them to tell them the importance of a healthy smile! When your child knows how important their smiles are, they’ll be more motivated to take care of it even when they become adults. Parents play an important role.

  1. Interactive Games Before Seeing A Dentist

You can also ease them and help them understand how a dentist helps with their teeth with many interactive games available on the iPad or on Android tablets.

Together, let’s build trust and righter smiles for your children!

Written By: Dr. Belinda Dwee

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luffy 93
luffy 93
2024-03-12
good dentist..Dr.Lisa did my scaling..after scaling my teeth is cleaner compared to my previous dental clinic..recommended..will come again..😃👍
Jennifer Khoo
Jennifer Khoo
2024-03-11
The response from time of my asking for an appointment (though last minute) was handled well. Staff was ensuring that if I couldn’t make the 5pm appointed time then she offered to reschedule. So I did for the next day. Dr Edwin was super nice and gave options to see that my swollen due to infection gum was treated with care. I only visit this clinic because of its professionalism. Cheers guys and keep up the great job ! Thanks.
ida ida
ida ida
2024-03-10
服务好,医生很有耐心,环境也很舒服,不会给顾客等太久,我们全家都在这里检查牙齿
Jialing Yao
Jialing Yao
2024-03-07
Dr. Edwin is a good and very patient dentist. The staff there is also very helpful.
Francis Lim
Francis Lim
2024-01-20
People with dental phobia like me have an awareness that the fear is totally irrational, but with extensive experience in the field of dentistry, Dr Lisa provides efficient and compassionate patient care. I just had my tooth extraction this morning and it was painless…. Furthermore Dr Lisa are very attentive and explain things very thoroughly without pushing for unnecessary treatment. Thank you so much Dr Lisa 🙏
ANNIES TANG
ANNIES TANG
2024-01-15
My regular clinic, Dr Edwin is very patient and professional. Nurse all so friendly and helpful.
Hamid BestRate
Hamid BestRate
2023-12-09
The Dr’s are very good and friendly.
Henry KK
Henry KK
2023-11-23
Got a bridge and implant done by Dr Jon this year. Still holding up, looking forward to next and hopefully final treatment for missing tooth. Flexible payment terms and polite staff. Give them a try if you haven’t.
Selvena Jeslinda Kaur
Selvena Jeslinda Kaur
2023-11-22
Smileway service is great and makes you really comfortable with its services & the Dr. Treatment.. even with my last minute tooth problem they were willing to slot me in. Thank you Smileway for giving me back my smile..🙏😍😁
khairul ashraf kamarudin
khairul ashraf kamarudin
2023-11-21
Having great experience so far. The doctor are very attentive and explain things very thoroughly without pushing for unncesssary treatment. The clinic is well lit and very clean👍👍. It is on the first and second so it will be a bit hard if you have a bad leg.

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