Treatments for Children

Parents often ask me what age is best to bring their children to the dentist for the first time. I recommend children begin coming to the practice around the age of 2 years. For younger siblings they can even come in from 1 year old as they like to be involved in what their elder siblings are doing. We encourage siblings to all come together to their dental visit.

We like to keep dental visits at our practice short, sweet and fun for the whole family. We offer health fund only payment for all children under the age of 16 years and recommend visiting us for all of your child’s dental health needs twice a year.

Children who visit the dentist regularly from an early age do not develop dental anxiety and we can prevent problems such as tooth decay, mouth infections and gum disease from ever occurring. We also check how your child is growing and see if they will need braces in the future or if they need earlier treatment to improve crowded teeth and limit thumb sucking habits and dummy use.

You may have heard of fissure sealants before. This is a preventative coating of a “glue” or sealant over the deep grooves and fissures within your child’s new adult teeth. This coating protects the teeth from decay that starts in the deep grooves of the teeth. These sealants can be placed on the adult molar teeth from the age of about 5-8 years and 10-16 years. They last for a long time and keep on protecting the teeth as long as they are there.

If your child happens to knock or chip their front teeth, please don’t hesitate to call the practice as we are here to help.
What to do if your child knocks an ADULT tooth out completely!

– quickly find the tooth,
– gently rinse in milk, salt water or water for a few seconds
– push it back into place in the mouth (tooth socket) – the correct way around!(look at the adjacent tooth), and then
get to the dentist asap!
– We look forward to taking care of all of your child’s dental needs.

Dr Sophia Petta