Parent’s Role

Help make the experience a positive one.

Preparing for your child’s first dental appointment, or fifth dental appointment, begins at home. It’s about attitude, approach, and conversations.

As parents and caregivers, what is your attitude about dentistry? How did your formidable experiences and opinions at the dentist affect the approach you take with your children? Don’t force fear on your kids when it comes to the dentist. Allow them to form their own opinions based on their own experiences, not yours. If they have questions in advance of their appointment, do your best to answer them. Still, know the best answer may be no answer, “I don’t know, we’ll have to ask your dentist when we get to Sprout Dental.”

As you spend more time with us, you’ll learn that we speak a little different around here. We know what to say and what not to say, and how to talk about difficult things in not-so-difficult ways to help our patients, your kids, have the most relaxed and rewarding experiences possible. “Shots,” “drills,” “extractions” are all words that inspire fear and they’re not words we use here. Please don’t use them at home. You may have good intentions in preparing your child, but the effects may backfire.

Once you get here, it’s honestly best to let us do the talking during your child’s appointment. We’ll walk them through all that will happen, but use language and approaches suited to your child’s age and understanding. We ask that you support whatever behavior approach we feel suits your child’s best. Please remember that treatment always proceeds more smoothly when there is total parent cooperation.

Don’t be alarmed if your child displays negative behavior during their dental visit. It’s not uncommon for a young child to be having a bad day or for a 1-year-old to cry throughout their entire appointment. Maybe it’s because we see it every day, but we know these things are natural experiences and reactions. The thing to remember is that we’re prepared to complete their treatment in an efficient and effective manner that will be complete with praise and rewards.