How to make your dental clinic child-friendly?

Children aren’t little adults, and treating them isn’t the same as treating adults. Most people understand that intrinsically, but few understand the specific challenges associated with pediatric dentistry.

Maintaining a child-friendly dental clinic is imperative. It doesn’t matter if you have a specialized pediatric dental clinic or a general dental clinic that treats pediatric patients; everyone should aspire to make their clinic more child-friendly. Far too many adults are traumatized from their childhood dental treatments, but we must make a concerted effort to change that.

Below, we provide crucial tips on developing a child-friendly dental practice.

#1. The reception should be friendly and welcoming.

The reception area is the first thing all children and parents notice when they step into dental clinics. As such, it’s crucial to ensure the reception area and the receptionist are welcoming to children.

Most dental clinics maintain high-walled reception desks that children have to tilt their heads upwards to see completely. That perspective is often scary for young kids, and it puts them in a negative frame of mind that’s hard to shake off later.

The reception area should ideally be brightly-designed, open-planned, and with lower walls. The child should clearly see the receptionist without straining too much. In turn, the receptionist must be incredibly friendly, confident, and trained to deal with children in stressful scenarios.

If parents bring their children into the clinic with a dental emergency, the receptionist should be skilled enough to immediately kick into high gear and take charge.

The reception is where the child starts building their perception of the dental clinic. If they feel welcomed and happy with the reception, they’re more likely to carry that attitude into the treatment.

#2. The waiting area should have plenty of distractions.

Anyone familiar with kids will know that they’re incredibly impatient, incapable of sitting still for 5 minutes at a stretch. When they’re impatient, they either make trouble or retreat into their thoughts, both of which can be problematic. If they have too much time with their thoughts, they might start worrying about the upcoming dental treatment and get into a negative frame of mind, complicating the treatment process.

To avoid that, the waiting period should be minimized through optimal preparation. Your dental clinic must have a clear working protocol to ensure all treatments are fast. That means everyone in the dental clinic should be trained to ensure maximum efficiency.

The treatment room must have all the necessary attendants and tools necessary for the treatment. You should also ensure that you leave some time between two appointments, so the next patients don’t have to wait too long.

Minimizing the waiting period through efficiency is crucial, but it’s not everything. Waiting is an unavoidable part of dental practices, but you can make the waiting period less stressful with a fun waiting room.

The waiting area should have books, magazines, televisions, headphones, toys, fun mirrors, activity tables, board games, aquariums, and other distractions. Your pediatric patient shouldn’t be kept waiting — but if they must wait, they should have plenty of distractions.

#3. Everyone and everything must have an introduction.

Children are naturally inquisitive, and they’re often scared of things and people they don’t understand. The fear is understandable — even adults wouldn’t want strangers poking inside their mouths with sharp metallic objects if they didn’t have context.

Children are no different in that regard — the only way to allay their fears is to familiarize them with their surroundings, establish trust with them and their parents, and explain the purpose behind each tool.

When parents and children come into the dental clinic, the entire staff should introduce themselves to the parents first, followed by the children. The staff should introduce themselves to the parents first to establish trust with the children. When they introduce themselves to the children, they should kneel down to the child’s level. Towering over children during the introduction can make them feel threatened.

Before starting the treatment, the pediatric dentist should explain each instrument’s purpose during the procedure. Explain what they can expect during the treatment and each tool’s purpose in clear and succinct terms. It’s best to use creative and fun alternative names instead of the original names when referring to different tools. Instead of saying “x-rays,” you can simply say “pictures.” Instead of calling the lead apron by its name, you can call it a “special jacket.”

#4. Positive encouragement and motivation.

Children respond well to positive encouragement and rewards. You can place a toy box or prize in a central location, within the child’s eyesight. The prize will serve as a constant motivation for the child to get through the treatment. If necessary, you can give them a gentle reminder of the prize awaiting them at the end of the treatment. In most cases, that should help the child calm down and look forward to the end of the treatment. The positive encouragement in the form of a reward also makes them more likely to look forward to their dental visits.

#5. Child-specific courses and training.

It’s not nearly enough to curate a dental team with friendly and compassionate individuals. The fact that your staff members should genuinely love working with children is really the bare minimum — dealing with children effectively involves a keen understanding of child psychology. Even the most well-meaning individuals may fail to connect with children and allay their fears without relevant training.

Your dental staff should understand how to interpret children’s body language, speech patterns, and expressions. They must develop enough trust that the children communicate freely with them, but they must also understand non-verbal signals, especially since a child’s communication skills aren’t as developed as adults. It’s also important to understand how to change the communication style for children of different ages to avoid talking down to them.

Most dental assistants and pediatric dentists get a basic introduction to child psychology while specializing in pediatric dentistry studies. But it’s worth seeking additional training and extending those courses to the entire staff. Following these tips will help you ensure your dental practice appeals to children and parents alike.

This article was originally published in the Zircon Medical Magazine for leading dental professionals. The article was based on an interview conducted with Dr. Michaela Anchidin, the pediatric dentist at Chinderzahni in Regensdorf.