Children’s Dentistry – Panama City, FL

Your Child’s First Visit

The first appointment is all about helping your child relax. It’s important for them to feel like our dental office is a safe place to be. As such, we’ll spend the first visit helping them get used to their surroundings and the sounds of our dental office. The initial visit is also our chance to take note of any potential developmental problems that you, as the parent, need to know about as soon as possible so that the appropriate interventions can be planned well in advance.

Dental Sealants

Even if your child is old enough to brush their teeth on their own, they might still have trouble cleaning certain spots in the mouth. The molars, for example, are particularly difficult to keep clean due to their location and the various crevices they contain. A dental sealant gives the posterior teeth a little extra protection by quite literally sealing off the area so that bacteria and food particles don’t settle into the hard-to-reach spaces.

Athletic Mouthguards/
Sportsguards

Does your child have all the necessary safety gear before they head out onto the field? Different sports have different requirements, but your little one should always make sure their smile is protected against potential accidents and sudden impacts. A mouthguard that has been designed by a dentist is more personalized than one that is found at the store; it can be customized to fit each unique smile, which in turn improves its ability to keep your young athlete’s smile secure.

Silver Diamine Fluoride

Cavities can hardly go ignored, but that doesn’t necessarily have to mean using a dental drill to place a filling. There is a much gentler alternative for treating minor tooth decay in children: silver diamine fluoride. By mixing silver with fluoride, not only does the resulting mixture help kill the bacteria causing decay, but it also works to remineralize the tooth, which stops existing cavities from getting worse and strengthens the enamel for the future.

Special Needs Children’s Dentistry

Every child is different. Dr. Waheed knows that and will always adjust his approach based on your little one’s needs. Please let us know ahead of time if your child has a developmental disability, Downs syndrome, a physical disability, or any other condition that could potentially affect the quality of their care. Our team will make the necessary accommodations during your visit and do all they can to make the visit a positive, stress-free experience for everyone involved.

Frenectomies/Lip & Tongue-Tie

The mouth has two thin muscular attachments called frenum. One attaches the tongue to the lower part of the mouth while the other attaches the top lip to the gums. An overly large frenum can stop your child from moving their lip or tongue properly, which gets in the way of eating and speaking. By simply removing a small amount of unneeded tissue, we can free up your child’s mouth and prevent further development problems.

Pulp Therapy

To save an infected tooth without removing it, we’ll need to treat the soft tissue known as the pulp that lies beneath the enamel. There are two types of pulp therapy that we might recommend. Pulpotomy only involves removing parts of the pulp to stop the infection from spreading. Pulpectomy, on the other hand, is the complete removal of the pulp, which is only done if the tissue is too extensively diseased or decayed to be worth saving.