One of our Facebook friends suggested that we do a post on all of the things we do to make the young patients in our office feel at ease. Her quote was “[My son] might be squirmy in the chair at times, but he has never been afraid of going to the dentist. He looks forward to going. Anytime I say he has a doctor’s appointment, he says, “With Dr. Michael?”
It all starts with the scheduling and matching our doctors’ personalities with our younger patients. Dr. Michael Davidson has two young children himself and is our high energy dentist. He does great with those children who are high energy as well. He will make the appointment fun – singing and talking about super heroes – and it is common for children to ask to stay because they don’t want the appointment to end.
Dr. Amanda Vonnahme also has two young children and is our doctor who does well with the quiet or timid children. She is soothing and has a calm, friendly voice and manner. She is great at talking to not only the parent at the visit but directly to the child to help develop the trust.
Dr. Justine Stemper and Dr. John Biegert have adapted their style with children from their personalities and watching the other two dentists. Dr. John’s style following more closely to Dr. Michael’s and Dr. Justine’s style following more closely to Dr. Amanda’s. [We tend to use first names with the children because it makes them more approachable and it avoids some of the harder to pronounce last names.]
Many patients will fondly remember having Dr. David Davidson as their dentist since they were children. While he will occasionally still see our younger patients at the request of parents and grandparents or the needs of the schedule, he has mainly passed that torch down to the younger dentists.
Occasionally, we will make the referral to a pediatric dentist if we feel that there are dental issues that they should see or if we feel that the younger patient would be better served in that environment. At Davidson Family Dentistry, it is all about doing what is best for the patient.
While it brings us great satisfaction to help new adult patients overcome their phobias and help them develop good dental health, it is extremely rewarding to watch the children in our practice develop beautiful healthy smiles and lifetimes of great relationships with their dentist.
Making smiles happen,
The Davidson Team
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