I am joined by Paediatric Dentist Dr Libi Almuzian who is so passionate about Paediatric Dentistry

There were so many knowledge bombs that I made broke this in to a 2 part series. Part 1 (this episode) will focus on Communication and Prevention, and Part 2 will be a bit more clinical with specific scenarios discussed.

If you love seeing Children, you will gain a lot from this episode, but if you currently do NOT like Paediatric Dentistry, Dr Libi shares her top tips to help you!

We discuss:

0:00 Introduction
12:12 Managing a child with multiple caries lesions
13:12 Importance of creating a no blame culture
14:01 How to make a dental visit more playful
19:55 Using an App called Social stories to get maximum engagement
23:37 Techniques in managing children cooperation
26:49 MOST IMPORTANT Question to ask your paediatric patient history taking!
27:52 The Sugar Bug Story – you will LOVE this.
34:03 Tips about Dentists finding difficult to relate to children
42:02 Communication with children and the flow of the appointment during operative procedures
46:36 Ultimate list for prevention

Any downloads promised (SDCEP guidelines, references to apps) are compartmentalised in the Protrusive Dental Community group:   / protrusive  

Or the Episode Blog post: https://protrusive.co.uk/paediatricd...

Here are Dr Libi’s top tips for Dentists:

1. Wear something or have a prop which might be familiar to a child (character sunglasses, a toy, a sticker of a character on your scrubs) This will break the ice and give you something to talk about.

2. Be excited! Your excitement will rub off on them. When you collect them from reception tell them how happy you are to see them and how excited you are about the visit today (So excited to meet your teeth!/ count your teeth!).

3. Teach your nurse to distract the child when you need to talk to the parents, this will make them less worried when you talk to the parents in a more formal manner.

4. Never use an instrument without introducing it, even a sharp probe can be introduced in a way that makes it nonthreatening (show them the probe and tell them it helps you to be able to tell if something is hard or soft, then run the side (not the tip!) of it along their nail and fingertip and say “see, now I know your nail is hard and your finger is soft, I’m going to do the same with your tooth to check it”

5. Use child friendly words, even if they make no sense, in fact better if they don’t make sense! This actually makes them laugh and relax.

6. Even if the child is cooperative they will lose patience, so always go for the simplest treatment option with the least steps involved. That way you will retain their cooperation rather than lose it, so go for a Hall crown rather than conventional filling when you can because there is less of a treatment burden involved.

7. If you lose cooperation, try to do something (anything) before they leave, this will build their confidence and stop any avoidance behaviour. For example if you were trying to do a sealant or other treatment and were not able to, reassure them that sometimes it can be hard for some people to do this procedure the first time but they will definitely manage something easier, then apply fluoride (if they are not due a fluoride treatment then even just painting their teeth with water and a micro brush will help build their confidence), just remember to explain to the parents why you are doing this.

8. Motivate the parents to talk positively about the visit when they’re at home, tell them to only refer to the positive aspects and give them a goal to work towards, for example, next time we will polish your teeth with the dentist’s special electric toothbrush and it will tickle, how exciting!

9. Be empathetic with parents, tell them you know it’s difficult it is to brush twice for two minutes, when the day is so busy and the children are so squirmy! Acknowledge the difficulty of controlling sugars and give them one goal like cutting out juice during the weekdays. Small achievable goals are easier to accept and praise them for their efforts in caring to make a change.

...continued on https://protrusive.co.uk/paediatricd...

If you want to check out an educational book about 'sugarbugs', do check out this fantastic book: https://amzn.to/3qSu0OF
Open Wide, What's Inside? By Alex Rushworth and Helen Rushworth