We hope that our tips will help your child enjoy their next visit to the dentist and overcome any anxieties.
Consider the following tips to help reduce your child’s fear of the dentist:
- Try and make a morning appointment so that your child doesn’t spend the whole day thinking about the appointment. Mornings also work well as, like adults, children have less patience when tired.
- Avoid talking about the appointment, but if you do, talk about clean teeth and healthy smiles rather than mentioning words that could scare like “drill”, “yank”, “scrape”, or “needles”.
- Avoid bribing your child to go as this may make them think there is a reason not to go, although there’s no harm in rewarding them after.
- Stop any older siblings from telling tales that could scare.
- If you need to discuss the procedures with the dentist, do it when your child isn’t around.
- Regular visits will reduce anxiety as well as allowing maximum opportunity to find any dental problems nice and early.