Pediatric Dentistry for Children with Autism

If you are the parent or caregiver of a child with autism, you are already aware that tasks that are simple for many families can be significantly more complicated for you. Bringing your child in for a dental visit is one of those tasks.

Many children have fear or anxiety around visits to the dentist, and for children with autism, this fear or anxiety can be extreme. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often have challenges related to communication, social interaction, and many are non-verbal or need support expressing their feelings and understanding instructions. All these challenges make a dental visit a potentially stressful experience.

It’s important for parents with dentist-phobic children, special needs and including parents of children with autism, to find a dentist who is specially trained to treat children. Pediatric dentists have training and experience specifically around strategies to make children more comfortable in a dental office setting.

The team at Kids Corner Medical & Dental in Oakville have a wealth of experience treating children with a variety of special needs, including but not limited to autism.

Here are some strategies we can use to improve your child’s experience while visiting the pediatric dentist:

1. Our team has been specially trained to use social stories containing pictures to describe what is about to happen in detail. This is especially helpful to children with autism as many are very visual and find it comforting to know exactly what to expect.
2. Providing toys or rewards for positive behaviours is very popular with our special needs patients and gives them something to look forward to from their next visit.
3. We offer parents the opportunity to bring their children in for desensitization visits, helping to gradually introduce children to the clinic, the dentist and team, and see first-hand that it is not a place to fear.
4. We provide a variety of conscious and unconscious sedation options for patients who are highly anxious about their dental treatments.

We know that being a parent is the most challenging job on earth, and that parenting a child with autism adds an extra layer of complexity to everyday tasks. Our team has experience treating young people with special needs and would be happy to schedule some time to meet you and your child and start the process of getting your child comfortable visiting the dentist for a check-up and cleaning.

Kids Corner Medical & Dental is located in South Oakville. Our office is open and accepting new patients. Contact us today to schedule your pediatric dental visit.