How to Convince Your Child for a Dental Visit?

Adults are often known to suffer from dental phobia. About 20% of the US citizens, according to studies, refrain from dental visits, simply because they suffer from significant levels of dental anxiety. Therefore, children would quite obviously suffer from varied levels of dental fear.

Now, if you are the one suffering from a dental anxiety, it would certainly affect your child’s dental visits. Try not to influence your child in a negative manner. For this, you need to shrug off your worries first. Only then will you be able to convince your kid to accompany you to the dentist, even if it is for a regular check up.

Nevertheless, even after all your efforts if your child is bent on skipping a dental check up, you may try your hands on some of these techniques in order to pester your child for a dental visit:

Make the dental trip a fun filled one for the child:

Your child should not be under the impression that the dentist is kind of a stern person with tough hands and harsh words for his patients. Although this is not the case these days, yet, take him to the dentistry and let him tour the kids section (choose an office that has an interesting an separate corner for kids or special arrangements for them). Let the child converse freely with the dental expert and share things (pictures or stories) that would instigate the kid to have healthy teeth.

Your child’s pre-school should arrange for trips:

Nowadays, its common for nurseries and pre-schools to take the kids to dental trips. There, they get to have a look at the tools, talk to the people over there, learn about dental hygiene and so on. Since all of this takes place in a friendly ambiance and the kids are there in a group, along with their peers, the overall experience proves to be fun for them! Consequently, they are freed from dental fear, if any.

Play a game with your kid pretending to be his / her dentist:

This would be another fun filled activity for your child which could probably generate his interest in visiting the dental office. You could dress yourself up once as the dentist itself or a nurse in the dental office. Take your child in front of the mirror. Show him/her the teeth. Pretend as if you are examining the child and while doing so, explain to him the to-dos in order to resolve the issues. For instance, if they have cavities, tell them how to get rid of it. Or else, simply explain why he / she would require a filling!

Bribing your child for a dental visit is a big mistake:

If you have the idea of bribing your kid so that he agrees to accompany you to the dentist, you are seriously committing a mistake! Once you do this, your child gets the notion that going to the dentist must be something scary and tough and that is why you are ready to bribe him. In fact, you need to instill in him that a dental check up is no big deal, and there is nothing much to worry about.

Stay with the child all the time:

A parent’s presence, even if it is without some soothing or calming words, naturally puts your child at ease. Your absence from the room could instill fear in the kid and he might not cooperate with the dentist then. Silence is often unnerving for a patient. This is why dental experts have a habit of chatting with the patients. So, if you keep conversing with your child (even if he or she can’t see you) you will be actually making the job of the dentist easy for him!

Well, before all that, it quite goes without saying that, you could free your child from any dental fear if you start early. A baby’s first dental visit should happen as early as 6 months or as soon as his first tooth appears. A regular check up at an interval of every 6 months, would automatically let him know that this is a must-do thing at regular intervals.