Services

Prevention & Education for Infants, Children and Teens

This is our #1 goal as your child’s health care provider. Did you know that tooth decay is the number one preventable childhood disease? We strive to see all children by the age of one so we can help to educate you early and focus on prevention. As your children grow, their preventive needs will change and we will customize their visits to accommodate this.

• Oral Hygiene instructions – we will work together at each visit to guide them and give them tools for proper care at home. Parents and guardians are our helpers at home and we ask that you are apart of the oral hygiene routine until the kids are old enough to do a good quality job at home. Give them a turn, but make sure you get to “check”!
• Fluoride – Fluoride is safe and effective in preventing and controlling dental caries when used properly. It has been a major factor in the decline and severity of cavities in the US. During your child’s visit we will discuss your child’s cavity risk and may suggest a fluoride treatment that day as well as discuss what types of fluoride your child may benefit from with their home care.
• Nutrition Instruction and Guidance – This is a major focus of our practice because it is not only critical in cavity prevention, but also to give children the tools to start making healthy choices for their total health. Nutrition choices and their effects will be a discussion at each visit.
• Learning lab experiments – We believe that children learn by actively participating and not just being told what to do. We have created different hands on activities for our patients that will help teach them about oral hygiene, dentistry and healthy nutrition choices. These lessons will encourage individual skill building and will help to influence them to help make healthy choices for total health.
• Sealants – A protective coating placed over deep grooves in molars to help try and prevent cavities on the biting surface of the tooth. We will let you know if your child may benefit from this preventative service.
• Mouth Guards – Custom mouth guards can be made for your child if they participate in sports. Mouth guards are made to help prevent trauma to the oral structures and there is some debate that they may also help to prevent severity of concussions. Either way we love to see our patient athletes in a mouth guard!
• Space maintainers – When children lose a tooth early due to infection or trauma, we sometimes will recommend a space maintainer so we can help to hold the space for the developing permanent tooth below. These may also be used for some children to help hold space for future orthodontic care.

Dental Exams & Digital X-rays

These services help to give us the full picture so we can treat your child comprehensively.

• Dental Exams and Oral Cancer Screenings.

• Digital Radiography and Panoramic Radiographs – Digital Radiography has helped us to significantly reduce the amount of radiation exposure for every child. We use all preventative measures to continue to minimize any exposure.

Dental Treatment

Cavity causing bacteria does exist and although we work hard with you to help prevent cavities, sometimes they do develop. Its ok…our team is trained to make this experience as easy as possible. We utilize the best technology and our caring team will make this process a breeze. These visits are important teaching moments. We will work with you and your child to help give recommendations for changes to minimize the risk in the future.

• White or Tooth Colored Fillings – These are completed when there is a small to moderate size cavity and it replaces the tooth broken down tooth structure.
• Pain Free Fillings with Laser Dentistry – Treat cavities without anesthetic using our CO2 Laser.
• Crowns – Stainless Steel Crowns, Caps, White Anterior Crowns
  When there is a large cavity and not a lot of healthy remaining tooth structure often a crown is the best treatment for this tooth. A crown covers the tooth entirely and helps to prevent further destruction of the tooth. These stay on the primary teeth until they would naturally fall out.
• Nerve Treatments for Baby Teeth – When decay is very large it may come close to or enter into the nerve of the baby tooth and additional treatments may be needed.

Tethered Oral Tissue Diagnosis and Treatment – Frenectomy/Frenotomy with Laser

• Tongue tie, Lip tie, and Buccal Ties – We evaluate and treat tethered oral tissues for both infants and children using a CO2 Laser.  Reasoning for treatment include helping to alleviate breastfeeding challenges for both baby and mother, feeding challenges for children, speech delay, to allow for proper growth and development of the jaws, airway concerns, and sleep apnea.

Behavior Guidance & Sedation

• Behavior Guidance – As a pediatric dental specialist, Dr. Sara uses behavior guidance to help establish communication, alleviate fear and anxiety and build trust with your child. We want to establish a strong relationship and promote positive attitudes towards dental care for the future. Some ways that we achieve this are the tell-show-do technique, positive reinforcement, and distraction.
• Nitrous Oxide – Nitrous oxide also known as “laughing gas” can be an excellent tool to make your child comfortable during restorative procedures and help them with anxiety. It is administered by a small mask over the child’s nose and is inhaled with normal breathing. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recognizes the use of nitrous oxide/oxygen as a safe and effective technique for treating the dental needs of children.  After treatment is completed, the child is given 100% oxygen to flush out the nitrous oxide from the lungs and it is quickly eliminated from the body at the end of the visit.
• Conscious Oral Sedation – We always want our children to feel comfortable, but some children may need a little more assistance to get them relaxed. Oral conscious sedation may be an option and we would be happy to discuss if your child would be a good candidate for this procedure.
• General Anesthesia in Office – In some cases, dental work cannot not be completed in a typical visit for various reasons, and for this we offer in office General Anesthesia appointments. We have partnered with outstanding Anesthesiologists that are specifically trained to work with young children that allow us to complete all the child’s dental needs in one visit. Dr. Sara and her team will consult with you and your child to determine if they may benefit from this service.

Children with Special Needs

Pediatric Dentists like Dr. Sara go through extensive training and extra hours of experience working with children who have special needs. Our team is comfortable working with children who have complicated medical histories or who may need a personalized approach for their dental care.