What can we provide for your child?

Dental decay is the most common oral disease and can affect children as young as 1 year old.
Approximately 40% of 5 year olds in Ireland have some dental decay. We recommend that
children attend before their first birthday to asses your child’s dental health with a view to putting
in place a timely, tailor made plan for the prevention of dental decay.

We advise parents on the most appropriate home care and how to include sweet food and drinks
in a way that minimises the risk of dental decay and disease. Early assessment and detection of
decay will minimise the amount of dental treatment required for your child, minimise the risk of
pain and infection as well as minimising costs in the long term.

One of the many advantages of dental attendance as an infant is allowing your child to become
familiar with the dentist and the environment at their own individual pace. Several non treatment
visits allow information to be given regarding prevention of disease and reduces the chances of
dental fear developing at future treatment visits. Poor dental experiences in childhood have been
shown to prevent regular dental attendance in adulthood.

Children with an anxious nature may need more time and encouragement and an individual
approach from an empathetic dentist using advanced behaviour management techniques with
the aim of producing a confident patient.

Are there other advantages of early attendance?

Prevention of dental disease and protection against dental anxiety are benefits that come with early and regular dental attendance. Other advantages include early detection and treatment of dental problems. This can mean minimisation of the amount and length of treatment. Early restoration of teeth with durable long lasting restorations will minimise the length of time in the dental chair for your child. Early treatment means we can aim to reduce dental extractions and the need for dental general anaesthetics

Regular attendance allows us to monitor your child’s ever changing dental development and allows early intervention in conditions which are unique to growing children. Consultation with an orthodontist and other specialities are undertaken if required in order to maximise the potential for a healthy adult mouth.

Children differ physically and emotionally from adults hence their treatment needs to be tailored to their age, temperament, personality, cooperation levels, gag reflex, sensitivity to tastes, extent of treatment need and the type of treatment option required for durability.

We aim to work with parents to ensure that children have a pleasant experience with us. Most children enjoy visiting the dentist however for children with an anxious nature we use behaviour management techniques sometimes along

with sedation (happy air) to reduce a child’s anxiety. It has also shown that reduction of anxiety means that their threshold for discomfort during treatment is increased. It is important that parental anxieties about attending the dentist are not transferred to a child and that dental visits and treatment are discussed in a positive manner.

Untreated decay in baby teeth, like adult teeth, can lead to pain and infection with long standinginfection possibly leading to damage of developing permanent teeth. Dental decay and pain caninterfere with eating, sleeping and cause poor behaviour and appearance.Back baby teeth only start to fall out at the age of 10-12 years when the adult ones are due toerupt. For teeth that are fit for restoration, it has been found that children tend to cope better withfillings rather than extractions. Filling or restoration of baby teeth allows these teeth to be retainedand function in eating and preservation of space for the adult tooth. Early loss of a baby toothallows unwanted movement of other teeth into its space thus there may be no space for theadult tooth to grow. Keeping baby teeth can help to reduce the need for extractions and braces.