Professional Courtesy: Tidbits For National Children’s Health Month by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD



by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine

I'm a founding member of Dentaltown.com and have been the editorial director of this publication for the last 13 years. One of the most gratifying experiences I have is to see new members discover the power of the Dentaltown community.

The community is powerful as a learning resource, powerful as a sounding board (you can have any dental question answered by a 24/7 community of dental professionals from around the world via our message boards) and it's powerful in that you learn you are not practicing alone.

Some of our readers experience the power of Dentaltown through the magazine that you're holding in your hands, others experience that community through the website, and others experience it through our conference, or all three mediums. The community started online, however, so every month we bring you a bit of content from our website along with a treasure trove of original articles that focus on practical information you can use to improve your practice today.

In this issue, in honor of National Children's Dental Health Month, I've collected some terrific tips and tricks regarding pediatric dentistry. These are from our Dentaltown message boards to remind you of the resource that's available while you're waiting for our next issue to appear in your mailbox.

Treating or referring kids
"Knowing when to treat or refer kids. No black-and-white rules for me but here are some red flags I will look for during the hygiene exams.
  • Inability to tolerate bitewings. This is probably one of the best indicators of successful op appointments. Some can't tolerate due to gag reflexes and for these, nitrous and rubber dams can help a lot.
  • Parents/patients talking about needles/shots/pain etc. Or parents explaining how they hate going to the dentist, etc.
  • Patients frantically looking around at all the instruments, prophy hand piece, etc.
  • Anterior caries
  • Older kids: attempt sealants first
  • Kids who won't look you in the eye when you talk to them
  • Listen to the hygienist. An experienced hygienist will save you lots of grief if they know kids well, by giving you a heads up on their anticipated behavior."
Display Name: Pedoburrito

Fun ideas for a school presentation
"Idea for school presentation: Buy the ginormous toothbrush from www.greatbigstuff.com. Big pillow cases. Have a few kids volunteer to the front of the room and have them step into the pillow cases and stand shoulder to shoulder. Let two other kids come up and hold the toothbrush and let them 'brush the teeth.' Make sure they get down looooow on the gums and up high on the crowns. Kids love it!"
Display Name: Abynum

"Book recommendation: Handbook of Pediatric Dentistry, by Angus C. Cameron BDS (Hons) MDSc (Syd) FDSRCS(Eng) FRACDS FICD (Editor), Richard P. Widmer BDSc (Hons) MDSc (Melb) FRACDS FICD (Editor)"
Display Name: Tooth Whisperer

Dismissing a patient when the mom doesn't want X-rays
"I am sorry but our visions on what is best for your son are not the same. I will not be able to treat your child today. Have a great day."
Display Name: Dr_Mike

Space maintainer flow chart
"Wave space maintainer flow chart. I'm getting a copy. By Wavel Wells DDS"
Display Name: Josh Wren

'No cavity club'
"I let kids with incipients go on the board. I even let kids with decay on soon-to-exfoliate teeth go up. We also let them put one on after treatment is complete. It's fun to give them motivation to come back for treatment, and makes it easier in a family where some kids have treatment needs and others do not."
Display Name: Tooth Whisperer

Ortho for a 4-year-old?
"The most important thing to work on now would be lip seal for the kiddo with the open bite. Big lightweight poker chips work great for the kid to just hold with his lips throughout the day...keeps the lips closed and gets him to breathe through his nose."
Display Name: WPS456

Intra-oral camera recommendations
"Works great! It's really nice at pointing out incipient occlusal lesions. What looks like nothing to mom with the 'naked eye' looks huge with the intra-oral camera. It's really not uncommon to hear 'can we fix that today?' Our response is usually 'Yes ma'am, we can.'"
Display Name: JWrenDMD

Sealing hypoplastic molars
"We will place sealants depending on the tooth and its inherent "grooviness". For teeth that are relatively continuous we monitor and place a restoration as needed. "
Display Name: Midwestboy

Our other pediatric offerings in this issue include a continuing-education course from the ever-popular Dr. Josh Wren about pulp therapy and stainless-steel crowns (page 78), and a message board about attracting patients to a new pediatric dental office (page 102). We also have an article from Dr. Dawn Grimes Kulongowski about the importance of fluoride and vaccinations for young children (page 58). Have something nice to say? Send me an email: tom@dentaltown.com. Twitter fans follow @ddsTom. Even if you don't treat kids in your office, I hope these pint-sized words of wisdom were valuable. Happy National Children's Dental Health Month.

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