Pediatric dental care for patients with special needs requires specialized knowledge acquired by additional training, as well as increased awareness and attention, adaptation, and accommodative measures beyond routine treatment. Dr. Mona and her team are committed to creating a dental home for your child where treatment can be delivered safely and with individualized care and support.
If your child is a new patient with special needs, consider scheduling a meet and greet consultation to allow your child to meet Dr. Mona and our team, as well as explore our office, before any dental care is provided. Our office is located on the ground floor level with an exterior entrance that is wheelchair accessible. We accommodate our appointment lengths and times to best suit our patients’ needs.
Accommodations and Adaptaptions
Some examples of customized accommodations or adaptations we use for our patients with special needs include:
- A detailed schedule of what to expect at your visit for children that will benefit from a familiar routine.
- Keeping the details of each visit the same for familiarity and predictability. For example, we can ensure the same appointment time and same dental assistant every time your child visits.
- Varying the length of appointments to suit individual needs. For example, children with anxiety may benefit from splitting dental care into two shorter appointments, or they may benefit from a longer appointment time to allow them to feel settled and comfortable.
- When dental treatment is needed, such as cavity fillings, we find that splitting the work into multiple lower-pressure visits is easier on our special needs patients than trying to accomplish everything in one visit.
- Parents and caregivers are encouraged to accompany their child into the treatment areas for continuity, comfort, and familiarity. However, some special needs patients actually do better when mom or dad wait in the reception room. Working together, we can determine what works best for your child.
- Some patients benefit from early morning appointments when they are fresh, rested, and most relaxed. Some patients do better mid-day after their morning routine and/or after their medications have had a chance to work. Please let us know if you think a specific time of day will work best for your child’s appointment.
- Many children with special needs feel most comfortable in a private and quiet room, where there are no other children playing and they can shut-out the normal sounds associated with a dental office. Please let us know if you think your child will prefer a private room over our open clinical area.
