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Healthy Smiles with Pediatric Dental Benefits
Your child’s dental health is the foundation of their overall well-being. Choosing the right pediatric dental care can make all the difference in a lifetime of healthy smiles. Discover the benefits of specialized care designed just for little mouths.
Parents who bring their children to Dr. Gaertner’s office can expect a friendly, warm environment and a variety of high-quality dental services. Here’s what you need to know about dentistry at Bliss Dental.
Why Visit a Pediatric Dentist
Visiting a pediatric dentist like Dr. Gaertner offers several benefits for children’s dental health, leading to a positive experience:
- Dr. Gaertner specializes in treating children and adolescents, ensuring they are comfortable and relaxed during dental visits.
- He focuses on the unique dental issues in children, understanding the development and growth of their teeth, and emphasizes preventative care.
- At Bliss Dental, dental habits like regular brushing and flossing are highly encouraged to avoid dental problems.
In addition, our Miami, FL dental office is kid-friendly and features toys and books designed to make trips to the dentist fun for children. Our front desk staff has put much time and energy into creating an enjoyable environment for little and big kids. If you’re looking for a dentist in Miami who will help put your child at ease, Bliss Dental could be a perfect choice.
What You Should Know about Pediatric Dental Care
As a parent, you naturally prioritize your child’s well-being, but the importance of oral health and dental care in this context is often underestimated:
- Tooth decay, the most common infectious disease among children, can cause significant discomfort, affecting their ability to eat, speak, and participate in daily activities. It often leads to toothaches and missed school days.
- In Miami, the likelihood of a child experiencing tooth decay is statistically high, emphasizing the need for more than just home care.
- Regular brushing and flossing at home are important, but insufficient alone. Regular dental visits, twice a year, to a kid-friendly dentist are crucial for examining and cleaning a child’s teeth to prevent cavities.
Recognizing the importance of dental health is vital for parents. Ensuring regular dental check-ups can greatly contribute to preventing tooth decay and maintaining the overall oral health of children.
Resources You Can Use At Home For Dental Care
In addition to visiting our kid-friendly dentist’s office, it’s important to practice good oral hygiene at home and teach your child the same. We understand the challenges of getting children under the age of eight excited about brushing their teeth, as they are often preoccupied with other activities.
Making Dental Care Fun and Interesting
At Bliss Dental, we aim to change children’s opinions about dental care by making it fun and interesting. We have resources that can help make oral health care appealing to children, encouraging them to brush and floss without being reminded.
Encouraging Proper Brushing Duration
We advise brushing for two minutes, twice a day. However, young children may find it hard to focus on brushing for this duration. To make it enjoyable, try playing their favorite song for two minutes or showing a two-minute video clip while they brush. The American Dental Association offers short videos on its website for this purpose. These methods create positive associations with dental care, encouraging children to maintain good oral hygiene as they grow.
We have worked with families throughout Kendall in Florida and have found that using media works far better than standing there with a stopwatch. The goal is to create positive associations between dental care and having fun so that your child will continue to brush their teeth as they grow.
Dentistry And Special Children Needs
While Dr. Gaertner specializes in caring for children and adolescents of all ages, he also has excellent experience in working with special needs children. Although dentistry is important for all children, it is particularly beneficial to those with special needs.
Parents of children with Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and other developmental or congenital disorders will find that Dr. Gaertner knows how to work with physical and mental limitations and provides their children with the highest quality of care.
Since children with special needs often have a challenging time acclimating to the dentist initially, visiting a dentist like Dr. Gaertner can enable parents to create a dental care and oral hygiene program that caters to their children’s particular physical, mental, and emotional needs.
Pediatric Dental Prevention
In our Kendall kid-friendly dentist office, we emphasize the importance of preventative dental care:
- Regular dental visits for teeth cleaning are crucial to prevent issues like toothaches and dental discomfort in children.
- Dental sealants are an effective method we use to prevent cavities, especially for children with deep ridges in their teeth where food and bacteria can get trapped.
- These sealants act as a protective layer, making it difficult for debris to stick in the ridges, and the application process is quick and painless.
At Bliss Dental, we believe in the power of preventative measures like dental sealants to maintain the oral health of our young patients. This approach helps significantly reduce the risk of cavities and ensures a more comfortable dental experience for children.
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Types of Pediatric Dental Services
Here at Bliss Dental, we offer a wide range of pediatric dentistry. Parents who bring their children to our office often refer to us as a “one-stop shop” because we truly do it all. Here’s a brief overview of the pediatric dental services available:
Pediatric Dental Cleanings
Excellent oral health begins with routine cleanings. During appointments, Dr. Gaertner and staff doctors show children how to brush and floss their teeth so they can develop an effective oral hygiene routine that can be carried on to adulthood. Dr. Gaertner makes routine cleanings educational by explaining what he is going to do in kid-friendly language. Dental cleanings for children are recommended every six months.
Dental Exams For Children
When children visit our South Florida office for dental cleanings, we will almost always perform oral health exams. During oral health exams, our team closely checks the teeth, jaw, and gums. They look for any abnormalities that may be problematic as a child grows. In the event an abnormality is detected, our team will explain our findings to the child and parent and come up with an appropriate treatment plan.
Pediatric Dental Digital X-Rays
Digital X-rays can help Dr. Gaertner and the rest of the team at Bliss Dental in Miami, FL identify issues with a child’s tooth and design an appropriate treatment plan. There are no chemicals involved with digital x-rays and parents don’t have to worry about them emitting excessive amounts of radiation.
Infant Oral Care
Infants, children, and adolescents all have different needs for dental care. A lifetime of good oral health begins during the first stages of a child’s life, even before their first teeth appear. We believe that patients who are well educated in children’s oral health can better ensure their infants’ and children’s dental care needs are met. Dr. Gaertner suggests bringing infants to our office no later than their first birthday so that he can develop a relationship with parents and provide them with all the advice and resources they need to care for their child’s teeth, gums, and jaw.
Fluoride Treatments For Kids
Fluoride contains fluorine, which is a natural element found in drinking water. Fluoride treatments can reduce the risk of tooth decay in children. They are often recommended in our office to help prevent problems later in life.
Dental Fillings In Children
Sometimes, kids get cavities–it happens. We offer tooth-colored fillings so that children can enjoy a more natural appearance. A filling procedure involves removing the decayed portion of a child’s tooth and filling it in to protect it from further complications. Since our staff doctors believe the best fillings are no fillings, we educate children on how they can prevent them down the road.
Pediatric Dental Crowns
Contrary to popular belief, dental crowns are not only for adults. We may perform a dental crown if a child’s tooth is damaged to the point that a filling is no longer an option. Generally, crowns for children are completed in one visit and last until a permanent tooth replaces them.
Dental Bonding For Children
Dental bonding is an ideal solution for children because it is non-invasive and will only take one visit to our dental office. The bonding material is tooth-colored and this procedure will feel comfortable. It is not as strong as a crown, but it is long-lasting and will work well until they get older.
Dentures For Kids
One of the most common dental restorations, especially for our older patients, are dentures which are a completely removable prosthetic used to replace lost teeth. Complete dentures replace all your teeth while partial dentures are used to cover some of the remaining teeth. The decision of whether or not to replace a permanent tooth in a child is personal and we will help to walk you through all of your options.
Pediatric Root Canals
Although Dr. Gaertner strives to prevent the need for root canals in children as much as possible, they are sometimes necessary to repair and preserve an infected and damaged tooth. A root canal involves removing the nerve and pulp and sterilizing and cleaning the inside of the tooth before sealing. Root canals can reduce the risk of severe infections and abscesses.
Nitrous Oxide Dentistry For Children
Also known as laughing gas, nitrous oxide is a mild, sweet sedative that we use to reduce anxiety and gag reflexes in children. Parents who are worried their child will not be able to handle trips to the dentist because of anxious feelings, bad gag reflexes, or behavioral or developmental problems should know that nitrous oxide can make dentistry tolerable for their child. There’s no need for hospital dentistry in order to get safe sedation and the best is dentistry. At Bliss Dental, our priority is safety and comfort for patients of all ages.
Emergency Pediatric Dental Care
Parents know that childhood is unpredictable. At any moment, their child can suffer from a toothache, a partially dislodged tooth, a knocked-out tooth, or another type of dental emergency. Bliss Dental offers emergency pediatric dentistry care and can give parents the peace of mind they deserve in knowing they have a go-to dental resource they can turn to at any moment. From our welcoming front desk staff to our skilled dental professionals with excellent experience in pediatric dental procedures, everyone on the Bliss Dental team provides support for parents and children during a dental emergency.
How do I prepare for my child’s first pediatric dental appointment?
Preparing for your child’s first pediatric dental appointment can be made easier with a few key steps:
- Get your child excited about the appointment and encourage positive attitudes towards dentists to promote good dental care habits.
- Reassure your child that dentists are friendly and there to help, not to scare.
- Bring toys to comfort your child during the appointment, easing any emotional outbursts.
- Speak with the dentist beforehand to understand what will happen during the visit, helping you to mentally prepare.
By implementing these strategies, you can ensure a smoother and more positive first dental experience for your child. This thoughtful preparation not only eases the initial visit but also lays a solid groundwork for lifelong healthy dental practices.
What will happen during my child’s first pediatric dental visit?
During your infant’s first visit to the dentist, the routine will be pretty standard. Most dentists have their way of handling their appointments but they are all alike.
The dentist will examine the child’s teeth, gums, jaw, oral tissues, and bite, hereby checking it everything is properly forming and coming into place. Next, the dentist will polish the tooth/teeth to remove any plaque that has formed along the gums.
If the child has any deep cavities visible to the naked eye, X-rays will be taken. Lastly, he/she will likely share some home cleaning tips and techniques with you.
Helpful Related Links
- American Dental Association (ADA). Glossary of Dental Terms. 2015
- American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry® (AACD). Home Page. 2015
- WebMD. WebMD’s Oral Care Guide. 2015
Why Choose Dr. Gaertner of Bliss Dental?
- As the son of a dentist, Dr. Gaertner‘s passion for dentistry began at an early age. Following high school, Dr. Gaertner attended Nova Southeastern University in South Florida, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology and then graduated with his Doctorate of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) degree. Dr. Gaertner has practiced dentistry in both the United States and his home country of Belgium and now calls the Miami area home.
- He practices a variety of dentistry, including cosmetic dentistry, smile makeovers, dental crowns, porcelain veneers, root canal treatments, and Invisalign. Dr. Gaertner has also integrated the use of dental lasers and Botox injections into his state-of-the-art dental and oral care practice.
- Bliss Dental is a full-service facility offering top-notch, compassionate care and providing services ranging from routine dental care and endodontics to cosmetic and restorative dentistry that enhance patients’ smiles.