How can I prepare my child for a dentist appointment?
Hopefully your child's first appointment with the dentist will just be for cleaning, and not to take care of a large cavity. Hopefully you're taking your child to the dentist when the child is not in pain. So you're going to tell them that they're going to go see the dentist. And the dentist is going to look in your mouth. Just like the doctor looks at your body, the dentist is going to look at your mouth. You're going to open your mouth real wide, so the dentist can see all of your teeth, and then the dentist is going to clean them, and the dentist may take some pictures of your mouth. And then the dentist will give you a toy, and then we come home from the dentist. It'll be a lot of fun. If, however, you have to take your child in and the child has pain for their first dentist's appointment, please try not to put your apprehension on the child. I know, as a parent myself, it's difficult when your child is in pain not to be apprehensive. Try to make it sound to your child like they're just going to the dentist to have something taken care of. Like they have a little boo-boo, and you're going to see the dentist and he's going to make it better.
