Not every parent understands the role regular pediatric dental care plays in the lives of children. A pediatric dentist is someone who has some added years of schooling and training to be able to understand the unique needs of children and teens.
Pediatric dentistry Miami
There are many reasons why a person may be interested in finding out more about dental health and dental care for infants, children, and teens from their local dental offices. A pediatric dentist or pediatric dental clinic should be a place where you feel comfortable taking children and adolescents to get their dental work done. A clinic for pediatric dentistry Miami in FL is a place just for kids, teens, and tweens to feel safe and healthy when it comes to their dental care.
When kids go to dental offices it’s incredibly important that they have a positive experience from their pediatric dentist and there are few experiences better, especially for adolescents, than a beautiful smile courtesy of their local pediatric dental office. But what are some of the things that you should know? And what are some of the major tips involved in finding the right place? Tip number one is always check with the experts so before we go any further, let’s see what the experts of pediatric dentistry have to say about pediatric dentistry Miami.
It is crucial to take children to a pediatric dentist in addition to their primary care physician, although not every parent is aware of the necessity. Unfortunately, most primary care physicians are also not aware of the dental recommendations for children by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAP) (Creighton, 1998).
This creates a health gap in the necessary pediatric oral care. Studies show most physicians recommend that an infants’ first visit should be at 3 years of age, not at the time of first-tooth eruption as recommend by the AAP (Creighton,1998).
The specialization of pediatric dentistry provides both therapeutic and preventative primary and comprehensive oral health needs of infants and children (Baakdah RA et al.,2021). Parents need to realize their importance.
Can the dentist charge for missed for appointment? Miami Beach pediatric dentist
This is tip number two. The truth is yes, they can charge for missed appointments so make sure you don’t miss them. But, if you give enough heads up and let them know why you can’t make it, you may not get charged and you might just be able to reschedule.
This actually leads to a bonus third tip, when you’re deciding what office you want to go with, double check their cancellation policy. Most offices understand that sometimes life happens – perhaps you had an emergency or simply aren’t feeling well enough today. Regardless of what it is, it’s important to make sure that you stay in contact with your dental office. If you cancel on them at the last minute, or worse yet are no call no show, then it is very likely you will get charged.
The reason for that is quite simple. While you did not get any dental work done, the office, staff, the room, the doctor’s time, and all the equipment was essentially reserved for you. It’s no different than if you reserved something else but failed to pick it up. When something is reserved it cannot be used for other people meaning that whether you used it or not, the company lost money, or would lose money, because you did not apprise them of the situation. This is why it’s essential that if you’re not going to make your dental appointment, try your best to let them know days, not hours, ahead of time as that will be your surest way avoiding any unpleasant fees.
What should I look for when choosing a dentist for a family? Pediatric dentist in Miami Florida
Some great things that you can look for at a dental office include to simply see the quality of the office and how they take care of their smallest clients. If you walk into an office and there is scarcely a toy in sight or everything is broken, dirty, or the books and magazines are filled out or torn, it’s pretty clear that’s an office that uses low quality control and holds a low view of their smallest patients.
While as adults we can sit in a room fairly quietly and patiently for an extended period of time, children struggle with this immensely and so an office that does not take care of the needs of their smallest patients is definitely one you should be wary of.
And then there’s the obvious stuff like making sure that your kid likes the dentist. A dental office that offers fun prizes or bonuses to kids who do great on maintaining their own health are all just great extras that can help make sure that your kid not only enjoys going to the dental office but learns those lifelong skills.
What are some of the best pediatric dental care services? Pediatric dentist in Miami
By far the single best pediatric care service that you can ever have is the basic checkup. It might seem strange that something like a checkup is probably the single most essential thing to do but the fact is that it is the foundation of all good pediatric dental health. Brushing and flossing are fantastic and are core elements of your personal hygiene; however, when it comes to getting checkups, the fact is that people who don’t get checkups as children become adults who do not get checkups. And that unfortunately sooner or later will lead to an expensive situation that could have been addressed far more affordably had the individual simply visited for a bi-annual checkup.
It’s impossible to take a look inside your own mouth and so having a doctor be able to take a look, let you know about any areas of concern, or warn of possible habits that your child needs to break can help ensure that they won’t be needing advanced treatment or root canals as adults.
Which is the best pediatric dentistry near me for kids? Pediatric dentist Miami FL
Best is a relative term that can mean different things to different people. You might think the best office is the one that’s most affordable, while your child might think the best office is the one that happens to have a new Xbox. What’s important is to figure out what aspects you deem as most important from a dental office and then finding an office that meets those needs.
Is it an office that your child loves to go to? If that’s the case, that’s definitely worth a little bit more money. Is the office close by? You also have to bear in mind your needs, too, when it comes to transportation, rush hour traffic, or having to take time off of work or school to be able to take your children to appointments.
With all this in mind, maybe having a chat with your children about things that they would like to see from their dental office and using that as a baseline to find out what kind of offices and services you would like to look for in your area is a great place to start. Doing things collaboratively with your children can help make this an experience that they are excited about and set them up for a lifetime of dental success.
References:
Creighton P. R. (1998). Common pediatric dental problems. Pediatric clinics of North America, 45(6), . https://doi.org/10.1016/s0031-3955(05)70104-8
Baakdah, R. A., Turkistani, J. M., Al-Qarni, A. M., Al-Abdali, A. N., Alharbi, H. A., Bafaqih, J. A., & Alshehri, Z. S. (2021). Pediatric dental treatments with pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions: a cross-sectional study. BMC oral health, 21(1), 186. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-021-01555-7