Here at Clinica Cloe, we are passionate about caring for your children's and teenagers’ teeth in Madrid. We understand how important setting up a good routine of daily oral hygiene and regular visits to the dentist can be for your child’s oral health into adulthood. We have a team of specialist pediatric dentists Dr. Mya Choufani, DDS, who holds a Certificate in Pediatric Dentistry from the OSTEOPLAC Center, and Dr. Andrea Zion, who is also a specialist in Pediatric Dentistry.
How do we look after your child’s teeth in our state-of-the-art clinic? Here are six ways.
1. We specialize in the first appointments for your child
A common question we are asked at Clinica Cloe is: ‘When should I bring my child to the dentist for the first time?’ We usually recommend that if it's your first child, whenever their first tooth comes in, it’s time to start thinking about introducing them to the dentist. We often suggest if you are coming in for a dental cleaning, you can bring your baby with you. At this point, it is about giving parents instructions on how to start taking care of the baby’s mouth. If we can see the baby’s first tooth, we can show you whether to brush with a toothbrush or not and how many times a day you should be brushing. However, we also say that if parents have any questions or concerns, to bring their child in. If you are concerned about the color of the tooth or the placement, bring them in and we can reassure you.
After that initial appointment, providing there are no concerns, we usually see the child again at about 2 years of age. A two-year-old can be really cooperative, at two and a half or three, we start to struggle with cooperation, but it doesn't matter, the important thing is to bring them anyway. If we get to count their teeth, that's great. If we don't get to do it, they're at least getting used to coming into the office. They come in by themselves. We try to get them to drive the spaceship, which is our seat and then we play with the water and ‘Mr. Thirsty’. We just try to get the child acclimated with the office, and we just go on from there, every six months.
We advise bringing them in every six months so we can supervise your child’s oral health and catch any issues early. Our main goal is to teach parents nutrition and hygiene so that the child doesn't get any cavities. For us, it’s about nutrition habits and hygiene at this young age.”
We are often asked by parents how to prepare their child or children for a visit to the dental clinic. We try to talk to parents before they bring their children to us for the first time. It’s important that we get children feeling comfortable and happy to come.
From the first appointment, we ask the parents to let the child come in on their own. We also ask parents to talk about the treatment with their children as little as possible, as it can make a child unnecessarily nervous. When we bring the children into the treatment room, we try to take them to an imaginary world. So we don't tell them we're going to give them anesthesia with a syringe. They don't see the syringe. We make them believe that they're going to make a wish and their teeth are going to go to sleep by themselves.
2. We provide nutrition advice for oral health, right from pregnancy
Like everything with child development, teeth health and growth starts with pregnancy. We ask if mom is on any medications, so we know if we need to keep an eye out when the baby's teeth come in. We explain to expectant moms how to clean the baby’s gums with gauze before teeth come in. We also recommend being careful about passing on germs etc to the baby through pacifiers and bottles.
3. We monitor any orthodontic needs for your child
If we see issues with bone or teeth growth and placement, we can offer an orthodontist appointment. Visiting your dentist on a regular basis with your child is important because the window to send your child to the orthodontist, as their teeth grow, can be narrow. Your child’s first visit to the orthodontist is free of charge, in which you will find out if it is necessary to place an appliance right now or to monitor every six months.”
4. We offer dental sealants and fluoride treatment
Another common question parents ask is how can they prevent their children from getting a toothache. The main answer to that is prevention. Having a good oral hygiene routine twice a day and going to the dentist every six months is your child’s insurance for healthy teeth for the rest of their life.
Genetics also play a role, but if your child visits us every six months, any cavity will barely have a chance to grow. We can clean it out and put a dental sealant over the tooth. If the child has siblings who have had many cavities, we may choose to do sealants on baby teeth instead of only doing sealants on permanent teeth to prevent cavities. We also give a fluoride treatment twice a year to strengthen the teeth.
We often get asked: ‘What is a dental sealant and why do we recommend it for your child’s teeth?’ When your child’s molar comes through the gum, the root is not fully formed at that time, and the enamel at the bottom of the crevices is not yet mineralized, so it's soft. A combination of not fully mineralized enamel and bad oral hygiene can mean a lot of plaque will grow in those areas. This is an area that's very prone to getting cavities. Since they're permanent molars, we really don't want them to get cavities. What we do is place what we call a dental sealant, a material that releases a little bit of fluoride over time. It's like nail polish. We paint it onto the 6-year-old molars as soon as they come out and the 12-year-old molars and wisdom teeth if necessary. If it's a high caries risk patient, we put it on the premolars as well because they are very prone to getting cavities. By having the sealant, the natural tooth surface is smoothed out. There's no risk of food getting caught, and it’s easier for your child to brush their teeth and be good at it. We prevent cavities that way.
Dental sealants are often not a one-time treatment. Since we don't cut or trim the tooth to place the sealant, it's just painted on and a lot of children brux as their teeth grow, pressing so much on the teeth it makes the sealants pop off. Usually, when they come back every six months, if we see that one has fallen out or is wearing down, we make sure that we place it back on. However, we tell parents that once you pay for dental sealant on that tooth in our dental office, we will replace it as many times as necessary, as long as you're a regular patient, free of charge.”
5. We can treat toothache
99% of children’s toothaches relate to decay. They may have so much tooth decay that they have developed a hole in the tooth, or a filling fell out and then they get food compaction. We can treat these cavities and use dental sealants to protect other teeth. It’s rare but sometimes, when children are starting to shed their baby teeth can get pain because the child bites on a loose tooth and it hurts because it hits the gum. Also, when a child is getting their six-year-old molars behind the baby molars. The gum gets really inflamed, and then they bite on something, or they may even bite on the inflamed gums. We can offer hygiene advice and check any areas of concern.
6. We make dentistry fun for kids
We are proud to have created a welcoming environment for the whole family. We have moms telling us that their children say excitedly, ‘Mommy, Mommy, today's the day we're going to the dentist!’ and they're in the car fighting with their brother because the brother is the one that's going to go see the dentist and they're not going to get to sit in the chair. They are happy to come in on their own after the first appointment.
How do we achieve this? We have a series of tools: we get the children to choose their own glasses and bibs; sometimes they’re animals or colorful choices. They get to watch TV whilst they’re in the chair. After the visit, they always get a prize, like a toy. In our experience, the children really listen really well to our advice, so much so that parents have told us stories of their child correcting how they brush their own teeth or even refusing cookies as a snack!
Visit us at Clinica Cloe to find out more about how we care for children’s teeth in Madrid
Book an appointment with Dr. Mya Choufani, DDS, or Dr. Andrea Zion today to find out how we could help your child’s oral health right through to adulthood.
