{
  "id": "my-child-is-scared-of-the-dentist-what-should-i-do",
  "title": "My Child Is Scared of the Dentist - What Should I Do?",
  "slug": "my-child-is-scared-of-the-dentist-what-should-i-do",
  "description": "\"To this day, paediatric dentistry holds a very special place in my heart. If I hear a child crying at the very other end of my practice, I will get up from my chair and I will go over to see if I can...",
  "category": "",
  "content": "\"To this day, paediatric dentistry holds a very special place in my heart. If I hear a child crying at the very other end of my practice, I will get up from my chair and I will go over to see if I can somehow help. I cannot cope with a child crying in a dental chair.\"\n\nThose are the words of Dr Kia Pajouhesh, founding principal of Smile Solutions. And when you understand what he experienced as a child, they carry a weight that goes far beyond policy.\n\n**Why this matters for your child**\n\nKia was 11 years old when a dentist in Brighton, England performed a root canal on him with no anaesthetic. The dental assistant held him down by lying across his chest while he screamed in pain. His mother sat helplessly in the corner. The dentist perforated his tooth in three locations.\n\nThat experience gave Kia a lifelong dental phobia - and within a year, it gave him a lifelong mission. He became a dentist because he wanted to build the opposite of what he experienced. A practice where a child in a dental chair would never have to go through what he went through.\n\nThis is not a practice that added \"child-friendly\" to its marketing brief. This is a practice whose entire existence was shaped by a founder's childhood dental trauma. The care for anxious children here is not a feature. It is the founding principle.\n\n**If your child is scared, here's what we do differently**\n\nAt Smile Solutions, our paediatric dentists are not general dentists who see children on occasion. They are specialist paediatric dentists - board-registered with AHPRA in the specialty of paediatric dentistry - who have completed full additional university training in the unique psychological and clinical challenges of treating children.\n\nThere is a meaningful difference between a GP who is comfortable with children and a specialist whose entire training is focused on child development, behaviour management, and age-appropriate clinical technique. For a child with dental fear, that difference matters enormously.\n\n**The approach in practice**\n\nTell, show, do. Before anything touches your child's mouth, they are shown everything that will happen. The instruments. The sounds. The sensations. In a calm, unhurried way that gives a child genuine understanding rather than manufactured surprise.\n\nTeddy bear therapy. Younger children are invited to bring a favourite toy or comfort object. That object can \"go first\" - receiving a gentle check while your child watches and understands that it isn't scary. This isn't gimmicky. It is developmentally appropriate and genuinely effective.\n\nLaughing gas (nitrous oxide). For children who need more than reassurance, happy gas is our most commonly used tool. It is safe, fast-acting, wears off within minutes, and transforms the experience from overwhelming to manageable for many children. It is not a sedative - your child remains awake, aware, and in control. They simply feel calmer.\n\nOral health therapists. Many children's appointments at Smile Solutions are conducted by our oral health therapists, who are specifically trained and qualified to treat children. They have the patience, the communication skills, and the clinical expertise to make a child's first dental experiences positive ones.\n\nNo rushing. Ever. A paediatric appointment at Smile Solutions does not have a clock ticking. If a child needs five minutes to settle, they get five minutes. If they need to sit in the chair with no treatment on the first visit and simply become comfortable with the environment, that is a legitimate and valid appointment. Building trust takes time. We have time.\n\n**What if my child needs more than happy gas?**\n\nFor children with significant dental anxiety, trauma, or complex treatment needs, more profound sedation is available. This includes oral sedation and, where clinically appropriate, general anaesthesia at a partner hospital with a specialist paediatric anaesthetist.\n\nWe will never push you to choose a more intensive option than necessary. But we will also never tell you to simply push your child through something they cannot manage. Every child deserves a pathway to dental care that doesn't leave them traumatised.\n\n**The environment makes a difference**\n\nSmile Solutions is located in the Manchester Unity Building, one of Melbourne's most beautiful art deco heritage buildings at 220 Collins Street. It does not feel like a clinic. There is no antiseptic smell in the lift. The aesthetic is warm, architectural, and calming.\n\nFor a child who has built up fear based on what they imagine a dental practice to be, walking into a beautiful Collins Street building is already different from what they expected. That matters more than people realise.\n\n**Tips for preparing your child**\n\nPlay dentist at home before the appointment. Let them be the dentist and you be the patient. Use a toothbrush to \"check\" their stuffed animals' teeth. Normalise the concept before it becomes real.\n\nAvoid catastrophising language. \"It won't hurt\" is a promise you can't make and that children see through. Instead: \"The dentist is going to count your teeth and make sure they're healthy.\"\n\nDon't share your own dental anxiety with your child. Children absorb parental fear with extraordinary sensitivity. Your response in the waiting room - calm, relaxed, interested - communicates more than any preparation you can do at home.\n\nChoose the right practice from the beginning. A child's first few dental experiences set the template for a lifetime. The stakes of getting this right are higher than most parents realise.\n\n**Getting started**\n\nNo referral is required to see a specialist paediatric dentist at Smile Solutions. Call us on 13 13 96 or book a complimentary consultation at 220 Collins Street, Melbourne CBD. We will meet your child where they are - and take the time to bring them somewhere better.\n\nBecause every child deserves to grow up without the kind of fear that drove Kia Pajouhesh to build this practice in the first place.",
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