Children’s Dentistry
At 42 The Dental Practice, we are able to offer special services for Children. These include the treatment of children that have specific problems either in relation to the complexity of treatment or psychological management.
Specialist Children’s Dentistry (or Paedodontics) can be beneficial in a variety of ways. It is a comprehensive service that monitors all aspects of growth and development of a child’s jaws and dentition and also gives the best chance of nurturing a positive attitude towards dentistry.
At 42, our Children’s Dentist is Dr Raffaela Mattiozzi.
Raffaela is a very experienced Children’s Dentist and has two Clinical Teacher positions at King’s College Hospital dental institute London, where she continues teach Acute Dental Care and Paediatric Dentistry to undergraduate students and treat patients in the departments of Paediatric Dentistry and Primary Care.
As well as treating nervous patients, Raffaela is very experienced in all areas of Paediatric Dentistry and is able to offer the following services to patients who may require her expertise in these areas.
What happens during your initial consultation?
We like to allow plenty of time at the initial consultation in order to get to know the child, acclimatise them, assess their needs then introduce them to good dental habits (covering topics such as diet, oral hygiene and fluoride etc.)
For children who may require extensive dental treatment, acclimatisation is a particularly important part of their management and this forms a central part of their treatment at 42 The Dental Practice, even if the treatment is to take place under some form of sedation.
From our experience, this time spent getting to know each child individually before starting any treatment is crucial to a positive outcome. During this time we focus on achieving a good level of trust, explaining clearly what's going to happen and what it will feel like etc.
It is designed to prepare them in general so there are no surprises and to enable us to minimise the possibility of any potential trauma in order give them a stress free positive dental experience.
This trust is especially vital to nurturing a positive relationship between the dentist and young patient to ensure a positive attitude to dentistry continues throughout life.
We encourage parents to take an active role in this and will often spend some time alone with them to explain things fully.
All consultations and check-ups include scaling and cleaning as necessary so extra appointments with the hygienist are unnecessary. This extra time spent with the dentist allows further acclimatisation to take place and helps to prevent a build-up of anxiety about dental treatment.
The Children’s Dentist at 42 is Dr Raffaela Mattiozzi