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The question of whether or not to work with pediatric patients is a divisive one among general dentists. Some will readily treat children, while others simply want nothing to do with them.
Many general practitioners maintain that treating children has the potential to substantially increase the profitability of one’s business. The main reason, they say, is that it can significantly expand a dentist’s patient-base – not only through the addition of those children as patients but also their family members as well.
“If you treat children like gold, you’ll see their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents as well!” declares one anonymous dentist on a website blog.
Also, as another dentist points out, while adults may have reservations about spending money on expensive dental treatments for themselves, they often will “readily spend money on their kids.”
Besides the obvious profit motive, many general practitioners say they are willing to treat children for the simple sake of promoting oral health awareness among patients from the earliest age possible.
“General dentists need to start seeing more children including infants and toddlers,” says one practitioner. “Every child should have a dental home by age 1.”
Recent polls show that the majority of general dentists say they will accept patients as young as 12-years-old, and at least half of those polled will treat children under the age of 6.
But is treating pediatric patients really a responsibility that simply any practitioner can or should accept? Many say it is not.
“They will have a better dental life if they start with a pediatric office,” one dentist says of children. Those who recommend referring children to pediatric dentists claim that general practitioners lack the sort of extensive training and experience necessary to enable them to provide children with the optimum care.
“Pediatric dentists are specially trained to handle problems particular to children, such as dental developmental difficulties and root canals on adult teeth that have not fully formed,” reads a statement on the Academy of General Dentistry’s website.
Another factor to consider in this issue is the level of comfort a particular dentist has with working with children. Many practitioners will admit they find the task of treating pediatric patients to be a daunting one.
“I break out in hives when I treat anyone under 18,” declares one dentist.
“I don’t enjoy restorative on very small children,” another dentist says. “It’s not profitable, and it’s stressful.”
“Pedodontists make their money the old fashioned way,” says yet another practitioner, “they earn it.”
If a dentist is generally unnerved by working with children, it can reflect on any sessions he or she has with one.
“If you do not enjoy treating them, then don’t!” warns one practitioner. “They know you do not like it and they get traumatized.”
Those dentists who are willing to treat pediatric patients might do well to be selective with regard to which patients they work with and under what conditions.
“If they can be reasoned with and kept calm with nitrous, I’ll treat them,” says one practitioner. “I don’t treat anyone that is screaming and crying, and I don’t care how old they are! Be calm, or take drugs!”
Other complications can arise out of treating children that dentists must be prepared to face as well.
“Either the child or the parent may be problematic,” notes one dentist.
Ultimately, every practitioner must carefully consider his or her own capabilities and limitations with regard to treating children before choosing to do so. Only those that are both mentally and physically prepared to undertake such a responsibility should do so.
“Children are the dental patients of the future – and the present, too,” acknowledges Jim Du Molin of The Wealthy Dentist. However, he says, “But if treating kids will cost a dentist his or her sanity, then there’s no sense in offering pediatric dental care!” |
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