When we think of family dentistry, we think of how we would treat our own family. And in the aspects that we have many of our family as patients, that’s how many people basically see our practice. They, in some ways, feel like they’re part of our family.
We’ve had employees who have come and gone in the practice. And in so doing, when we have a new employee, if we haven’t gotten them completely on board yet, and a patient calls, they’ll ask to speak to my wife, Pam, who’s the hygienist, or myself, because they’re like, well, I’m personal friends. And although we’ve never been to dinner with them or have done anything outside the office with them, they have this feeling that they are our personal friends, or in many ways, part of our family.
So that’s what we think of when we think of family dentistry. The purpose of seeing a child early on, again, goes back to the conversation about having a good experience. When I was an associate, and I would have to see children’s patients, and what I mean by have to see them, meaning that they would bring children into the practice, and it was a requirement that we were able to do treatment for the patient.
I went back to my psychology education and used a concept called gradual desensitization. Sometimes it would take several appointments before we were able to ever do the treatment for the patient. But the purpose was to desensitize the patient to the bad experiences they’ve had, and create the sensation of good experiences.
So a lot of times for children, we want to try to be able to give them a really good experience, more so than actually doing a lot for their teeth, because many children don’t have a lot of need in their teeth. But to have them come in, see their parents, go through a cleaning, have a good experience. They can be held by the parent, just to give them an opportunity to sit in the chair and be comforted with their parent, just to take a look in their mouth, and be able to have that experience.
The age is changing. We’ve had people that have brought in their children, they’re a year old to two years old, as soon as the little baby teeth start to present. But really the purpose there is to give that individual an opportunity to be seen in a medical environment, other than a medical doctor, where it’s not always a pleasant experience.
