Behavioral Approaches

Making your child’s visit as pleasant, painless, and productive as possible.

Things work best when we have your child’s full cooperation. All of our staff members have chosen to work in a pediatric dental office because they love children. So there’s a number of things we do to get
your child involved, engaged and ideally, behaved.

Some techniques we emphasize include:

Tell Show Do
We “tell” the child what we are doing, “show” what we are doing, and finally “do” the task.

Voice Control
This is a more assertive approach to behavior management that may be necessary to gain your child’s attention.

Parental Separation
You know as well as we do, when children need comfort they look for mom and dad. You’d be surprised, though, by how well they can also do without you. If you are concerned about not being in the room with
your child we invite you to take breaks from the waiting room to check on your child from outside the room. You will be amazed by how well your child does without you!

Distraction
Singing, dancing, movies, music, and a fun filled atmosphere help to keep your child’s mind off of what’s going on in their mouths. And that’s the kind of environment we’ve created here at Sprout. See it for
yourself.

Reward
We’re all about rewarding good behavior. Even when they aren’t so good, we find that a prize can usually end the appointment with a smile. It’s not about bribes or blackmail, it’s about recognizing good qualities
like listening, understanding, and maturity. Of course, we have the best prize boxes in the WORLD for your child to pick from!

Positive Reinforcement & Praise
Every child does something right during a dental visit and we will always let them know what it is. This is one of the most effective approaches and something we love to do.

Protective Stabilization
Occasionally we will ask a parent to help position their child so that they are safe but comfortable during treatment. In worst case scenarios we have a safety blanket that will gently swaddle your child to allow
us to perform any necessary treatment needed.