Accessories That Can Help You Create a Kid-Friendly Dental Office

Being a pediatric dentist is one of the noblest professions there is as you are helping the children grow into healthy and strong individuals. Still, it comes with a great burden and challenges since the little ones are naturally repulsed by visiting you, so it is not rare that both the patient and the dentist feel frustrated at times. 

As always, we are here to give our little contribution in the dental health promotion area, and this time, we want to present you with the proven methods that will make your dental office more appealing to the youngest patients. Whether you just opened the practice or have extensive experience, we are sure you’ll find this article beneficial and include some of our ideas in your professional environment. 

Greeting Them with the Friendly Attitude is an Excellent Start

Besides including the kid-friendly accessories in your office, you first need to make sure that your staff is kind and positive once they meet and greet the visitors. This will make a great first impression on the child and a caregiver or a parent and create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Advise your staff members to introduce themselves properly by using their names. Also, if the pleasant greeting was first delivered to a parent or a guardian, the child will perceive you and your staff as trustworthy. At that point, it would become clear to them that they are allowed to feel safe. 

Create a Kid-Friendly Atmosphere in the Waiting Room

This is the time and space where the child should adequately prepare for what’s coming next, so making sure that every detail can improve their emotional state is important. 

Entertaining videos and children’s movies can surely help with that and help the little ones calm down and distract for a while. You can include everything from colorful posters with famous characters to children’s books, magazines, and toys. 

Going a step further and providing guides that will be beneficial for both the kids and their companion is always a clever idea as they can prepare and educate them about dental health in a fun way. 

Dental Puppets Can Truly Make a Difference

You can’t go wrong with having puppets in your dental office, and we were witnessing multiple times how the kids react to them with excitement and joy. 

As a child sits in the chair, you surely want to talk for a while before the treatment starts, and this is a perfect time to show them a cute dental puppet that is here especially for them. You can start by showing its teeth and telling the child more about them, and then demonstrate a certain element of the dental procedure to show the little one that there is no reason to be anxious about a thing. 

Oftentimes, the children will hold the dental puppet during the treatment as the soft material and its friendly face help them stay calm. It is as simple as that, and it works every time. 

Having Purely Educational Accessories is Also Important

Creating a fun and safe environment in a dental office is hugely beneficial, but let’s not forget that you are there to educate them about the importance of oral hygiene, as well. If you took the steps we suggested before, there is a great chance that the little patient feels pretty relaxed while sitting in the chair, so you can provide a few ‘serious’ pieces of information that both the parent and child should know. 

You can use various demonstration models alongside the brush sets, and show the audience how to take proper care of the teeth and gums. Make sure to choose the right moment for the demonstration wisely to get enough attention and desired effect. For some, this could be prior to the treatment and for other kids, shortly after. 

Don’t Forget to Reward a Brave Little Patient!

Dental procedures can be very stressful for the kids, so making them feel proud afterwards is something you must consider. The easiest way is to give them candy to make them happy, but there are some great gadgets that they can take home and remind them of their bravery every time they look at it. These are the moments when you realize why you chose to be a pediatric dentist and how important your role is in the child’s mental development, as well. 

Having patient reward stickers with encouraging messages and colorful characters is just one of the things that will serve this purpose. Another one that will help you promote your office and be a practical gift for a child is a personalized toothbrush. You can choose a color, the text, and a StarSmilez character, and we will take care of the rest.

Hopefully, we introduced you to some fresh and exciting dental accessories that you wish to incorporate into your dental practice environment. If you have other ideas that were proven effective, don’t hesitate to share them with us in the comment section below and possibly make a newbie pediatric dentist’s life a bit easier!