Pedodontist treating a female child

Today I observed the pedodontist treating a female child. The child came in for her first dental visit. The doctor gave her a child prophy and fluoride foam treatment. Before having the patient come into the operatory, I observed the doctor turn off the lights and turn on the disco lights and presented the child with a princess wand. Then, she sat on the princess chair! He gave her a handheld mirror; so that she could see everything he was doing which actually was the key in allowing the patient to cooperate. The pedodontist practiced the “tell, show, and do” technique which worked amazingly for the child. The child has a thumb sucking habit, so her upper incisors were proclined and her lower incisors were retroclined. I realized that after the treatment, the dentist explained to the mother about her thumb sucking habits privately. I noticed that with every instrument, he explained and showed the child how to use it before it was placed in the mouth. I realized that being a pediatric dentist takes a lot of patience and you have to be animated to have the child cooperate. I learned that children need to be given choices, like which prophy paste or fluoride flavor they want to use, in order to get them to cooperate. After the child prophy and fluoride therapy was done, she was given a bag full of gifts for being such a nice patient. She was thrilled and took a picture with Dr. Payne, the puppet. 

G.Y., New York University College of Dentistry, Observation 3

Categorised in: Dental Student Experiences

This post was written by Interns