First Visit

Our office, as well as the The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Dental Association (ADA), and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) all recommend establishing a "Dental Home" for your child by one year of age. Children who have a dental home are more likely to receive appropriate preventive and routine oral health care.

A cleaning and polishing of your child's teeth followed by a fluoride application will be done. Dental X-rays are taken, if necessary, to ensure a thorough examination followed by oral hygiene instructions to emphasize proper oral health care. All aspects of a preventive dental health program including diet, hygiene and fluoride will also be discussed.

The Dental Home is where to bring your child to ensure they are on the right track with their oral health, a place to turn to with questions or concerns, and where to go in a dental emergency.

You can make the first visit to the dentist enjoyable and positive. If old enough, your child should be informed of the visit and told that the dentist and their staff will explain all procedures and answer any questions. The less to-do concerning the visit, the better.

For optimal communication, Dr. Jody will explain each of our procedures in terms your child can understand. We want to make your child's first appointment is a positive experience in order to set the tone for future appointments. If any dental findings indicate preventative or restorative treatment, then subsequent appointments may be scheduled.

It is best if you refrain from using words around your child that might cause unnecessary fear, such as "needle", "shot", "pull", "drill" or "hurt". The office makes a practice of using words that convey the same message, but are pleasant and non-frightening to the child.

It is always better to make a first dental appointment before your child has a dental problem. By starting an early prevention program, future dental problems can be avoided. Often times, if tooth decay is detected early enough, there are therapies available that can be used to reverse or minimize their growth. Furthermore, by introducing your child when little dental treatment is needed, he or she will come away a better patient with a more positive attitude about dentistry.

We strive to make each and every visit to our office a fun one!

Portage Pediatric Dentistry PLC complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.

INTERPRETERS AVAILABLE: You have access to interpretation services during your child’s dental appointment at no personal cost to you. Please let our staff know if you need language services so proper arrangements can be made.

SPANISH: Si usted habla español, servicios que ayuda con el idioma, de forma gratuita, están a su disposición. Por favor, deje que nuestro personal si necesita servicios de asistencia lingüística.

BURMESE: သငျသညျတာဝန်ခံ၏အခမဲ့, ဗမာ, ဘာသာစကားအကူအညီများန်ဆောင်မှုပွောဆိုလြှငျ, သငျသညျမှရရှိနိုင်ပါသည်။ သင်သည်ဘာသာစကားအကူအညီများန်ဆောင်မှုလိုအပ်တယ်ဆိုရင်ကျွန်တော်တို့ရဲ့န်ထမ်းအသိပေးပါ။

ARABIC: إذا كنت تتحدث العربية، وخدمات المساعدة اللغوية، مجانا، تتوفر لك. واسمحوا موظفينا معرفة ما إذا كنت بحاجة إلى خدمات المساعدة اللغوية"