 Hello everybody Andrea Turewski here with dental L tutoring I've been tutoring now for about 13 years and I still work in the dental office about twice a week But I do tutor primarily full-time and I love it But I love to talk to people about their oral health. So that brings me to the video today Where I want to talk to you guys about when you should take your child to see the dentist for the first time Now you might hear a couple different things from different people But some say that you should take your child in as soon as you see their first tooth, okay? So they're they're they're obviously going to be very very young right so that might not be necessary per se But a lot of parents feel that that's too early to bring their kids in That they'll just sit there, you know cry. They'll have a hard time But it's totally up to you what I tell my patients and parents is to bring them in age two At the latest, you know And that's because at age two, even if you don't see any problems with their teeth Like if you don't notice any enl stain, there's no cavities. You're pretty sure They eat limited sugar, you know, if you're pretty sure their teeth look, you know, nice Still bring them in at age two because then that way we can talk to him or her, you know, they may be shy That's okay, or they may be super excited, right? You just never know. I have seen Two-year-olds who are shy and don't say anything. I've seen two-year-olds who are so Excited and I can do like a full cleaning on them Or I've seen two-year-olds who sit there and don't open their mouths That's okay. The main thing is that they come in and we show them around so that they feel comfortable So that they don't feel like they're going to like a medical office, you know, because that can scare anybody But if we if they come in we can show them we have toys. We have a toy box After they do a good job with their appointment, they can have a toy They can have a new toothbrush new toothpaste all of that stuff So as a parent though, you need to make their appointment sound exciting too Do not say something like okay. This might hurt you But we're going to the to the dentist tomorrow Do not say hurt because they wouldn't even have thought That something would hurt them But then as soon as you say hurt or pain or sore they will go Oh my god So something is going to hurt me and then they will get nervous and they will get scared So never ever say that to them and never ever say which I hear this a lot Do not tell your kids that if they have a cavity, they will get a needle and that will hurt Nobody likes needles. Okay. If they have a cavity, we will talk to them. We will talk to them about how to Avoid more cavities We do not mention the needle because if they don't know that they're getting a needle They won't be scared because they can't feel it We put a numbing agent on there first so that they don't feel the needle We do say something like we have to put your tooth to sleep Um Depending on the dentist some of them say they will feel a pinch But I don't like that because pinch is hurt, right? So I don't like saying that some of them say It will feel hot for a second, you know, but I don't like that either because then that implies pain So it depends on where you go But I find the worst thing is when parents tell Their child that they're getting a needle. No kid likes the needle. Okay, so just don't tell them that But um at their first appointment We keep it simple like age two We might be able to polish their teeth if they want us to I usually say, um, we will make your teeth nice and smooth and shiny I show them everything. So I show them my polisher and I tell them that this is like my Special toothbrush like the one that they have at home, but it just looks a little bit different And I can see all of their teeth. So I will clean them. I will polish them Now some two-year-olds don't like the taste of our toothpaste. So I don't actually often use Any um toothpaste on a two-year-old, you know, three-year-old depending On the patient. So as a parent it does help if you are able to Bring in the toothpaste that they like so that I can put it on my polisher and then I can polish For them And I like to polish because as I'm in there I can look at all of the teeth at the same time if they don't let me polish Then I do have to pick up my little um mirror and my little instrument. That's kind of Pointy so some kids don't like that and I have to look in the mouth that way But I don't you know show them the pointy instruments because they don't like that right and They can't see what I'm putting in their mouth. So I will show them things like my polisher I will show them my um um mirror Because that's easy. I will show them the um little um air water syringe so that if I use some water They know what it looks like. Um, I will show them my straw to suck up the water So that's all that I pretty much show them and then I show them also my toy box And I do say after your appointment if you can open up really really wide Then you can have a toy and they love that. Um, so a lot of parents ask me Do you take x-rays at the first um appointment? No unless we see something that we don't like like if we look inside their mouth And and we can see um obvious cavities or obvious holes in the teeth We might take an um take an x-ray just so we can see if there's any cavities in between the teeth Because that we can't see and that's not something that we want to miss But I also would like to say that if you see that in your um child now You know, that's okay, but you do need to bring them into see us So that we can help them, you know, because I do have a lot of um moms and dads Say to me that they had noticed Their child had a cavity, but they felt so horrible That they didn't bring the child in for A long time and that's not a good thing because a cavity over time you guys Can cause pain and children have a hard time Telling you when they're in pain. Okay, they actually do they may be in pain over here But they don't know that it's coming from their tooth. So they may be um crying and saying that they're tired But actually they have tooth pain They may be acting out for no reason But actually they have tooth pain. So please bring them in We totally understand we don't go. Oh my god, like this kid has so many cavities. This is horrible No, because we understand kids get cavities. Okay, so bring them in so we can have a look Um, we typically take x-rays h6 If the child needs it if they don't need it. We don't take them easy, right? Um, and even if you have a child now who may be over the age of two You might be thinking oh shoot like I haven't brought them in yet. Should I bring them in now? Yes, it's never too late. I saw a patient the other day where her son was 10 And he had never had his his um teeth cleaned before but I was just so happy that she was able to bring him in Um, there was a lot of work that needed to be done But I was just so happy that she brought him in so we can get started because we never Want a child to be in pain And even if you don't think you see any um issues any tooth issues there might be something in there that you can't see So please bring them in so I say age two So we can have a look if we're not even able to clean the teeth because they're so shy That's fine. The main thing is that they come in so we can show them around We might be able to have a look inside the mouth if they if they actually cry because they're nervous or you know something That's okay because when they cry their mouth is open So we can just have a quick look in there and then that's it So if you guys have questions, please let me know. I do hope this helped and I'll see you guys in the next video