Backpack? Check. Booster Shots? Check. Teeth Cleaning? Check!

Tips for a Successful Dental Checkup

 
Regular dental visits are important year-round, but a back-to-school checkup is key in fighting the most common chronic disease found in school-age children: cavities. In fact, dental disease causes children to miss more than 51 million school hours each year. Prevention and early detection can help avoid pain, trouble eating, difficulty speaking and school absences. When scheduling your child’s pediatrician back-to-school checks make sure, make sure teeth are part of it.

Plan Ahead
Between cookouts, camping trips and everything else on your family’s summer bucket list, it’s easy for school to sneak up on you. Unfortunately, many parents may not think about making that appointment until the end of summer, which is one of her busiest times. A good rule of thumb is to make that late summer appointment in the spring. That way, you’re all set for back-to-school.

Timing Is Everything
Time of day can make or break your child’s appointment. It’s important for a child of any age, who’s used to a nap, to not schedule during nap time. If your child is always cranky after waking up, factor that in too. 

For older children, avoid cramming in a dentist appointment right after day camp or school. Not all kids have the energy to do that. It’s an even more important consideration if your child needs operative treatment. If your child has already been exhausted, had a bad day or taken tests, they just don’t have the stamina to make it through the appointment successfully.

Make One Child a Model
If you’ve scheduled back-to-back appointments for your children, choose the child who’s had the most positive experiences at the dentist to go first. Every child is going to be a little bit different in their temperament about how they approach a visit, and you generally want the one who has had a more successful visit to be an example to the other(s) of how great it can go.

A Hungry Child Is Not a Happy Patient
Feed your child a light meal before the appointment. Hungry people are grouchy people and you want them to be comfortable. It’s best to feed them at home with a brushing afterward versus a snack in the waiting room, to avoid the food particles caught in their teeth. Eating light is also better for a child with a healthy gag reflex. Some children gag a lot just because they gag with everything, which can make a dental visit a little unpleasant. However, kids tend to outgrow this as they age and gain more control over swallowing.

Leave Your Anxiety at the Door
If you had a bad experience with a dentist when you were a kid and your heart races at the very thought of the dentist, your child will pick up on that. It’s important with kids – especially 4, 5 and 6-year-olds – to remain calm. The younger your kids are, the more you need to be aware of how you’re communicating with them. For example, if your child asks about getting a cavity filled, rather than saying, “It will only hurt for a little bit.” Instead, encourage your child to ask the dentist. With any child, you want them to be able to feel successful at accomplishing a good visit and link that positive feeling with the idea that their teeth are strong and healthy so they have that message going forward for the rest of their lives.

Keep Cool If Your Child Won’t Cooperate
If your child gets upset during her visit, the worst thing you can do is swoop them out of the chair and leave. That will make the next visit that much harder. Just help them calm down and be supportive. First, assess why your child is acting out. Are they truly afraid, or are they trying to test the situation? One of the reasons a 4, 5 or 6-year-old gets upset is because they think they’re going to be asked to do something they can’t be successful at. It’s the fear of the unknown and they’re in an environment they feel they can’t control and that makes them upset. Sometimes it helps to break it down into small steps and follow their pace. The most important thing is to let the dentist lead the conversation, giving him every opportunity to turn the visit around.

Encourage Age-Appropriate Dental Habits at Home
The best kind of checkup is a cavity-free checkup. Moms and dads can help make this happen by encouraging kiddos to brush twice a day for two minutes and floss once a day. Here’s our age-by-age advice:

• Ages 6 and Under
 At this age, your child might want to do all the brushing herself but doesn’t have the fine motor skills needed to do a thorough job. Let them start and jump in when needed. During that age, the mouth is changing so much that children who are 5 or 6 are often brushing their teeth in the way they were when they were 2 or 3. They’re not accommodating the new molars and the fact that the mouth is growing.
• Ages 7-12 
By now, your child knows what to do, he just might not want to. Keep encouraging healthy brushing and flossing habits and be aware that sometimes you’ll have to step in.
• Ages 12-18
 This is a critical time for dental health. When you look at research for when caries appear in kids, it tends to be in young kids. But another bump-up time is teenage years and early adulthood. Part of this has to do with the fact that teenagers may have gone for many years and never had a cavity. They don’t necessarily take care of their teeth as well because they don’t see the consequence of not doing so. It’s also a time in their life when you have less control over what they eat.

Don’t let your teen’s habits become out of sight, out of mind. The behaviors of the teenager are going to translate into their 20’s and beyond. Support them and be respectful since they’re not little kids anymore, but do keep a watchful eye and encourage good oral hygiene.