Children’s Dentist in Hocking | Hocking Dental Care

The first few dental appointments of a child's life largely decide whether they will still be attending at thirty. We book them long, explain everything before it happens, and stop when the child asks.

The clinical work is the straightforward part: decay, bite, and how the jaw and gums are developing. The rest of the appointment is habit, and habits set in the years before anybody remembers forming them.

What a first visit actually looks like

Try to come before the second birthday. At that age almost nothing needs doing, which is exactly why it is the right time to come — the child gets to meet the room on a day when the answer is “nothing today”.

Meeting the chair
It goes up, it goes down, it has a light on it. Small children are often happiest on a parent's lap in the chair for the first visit or two, and that is fine.
Counting teeth
Out loud, with a mirror, so the child can watch. This is a full examination dressed up as a game, and it tells us most of what we need to know.
Showing before doing
Every instrument is demonstrated on a finger or a hand before it goes near a mouth. Nothing arrives as a surprise.
A talk with you
Brushing technique, bottles and cups, what is in the lunchbox, and whether a dummy or thumb is affecting how the jaw is growing.
Booking the next one
Usually six months, sometimes sooner. Regular examinations let us track how the teeth are developing and build the confidence that makes later appointments easy.

During the formative years of their life it is important for children to build dental habits that carry into adulthood. Our dentists see children of all ages, and much of the appointment is spent on the everyday things that decide how much dental work a child needs later: brushing properly, and keeping the foods that damage teeth to mealtimes rather than all day.

What we check as a child grows

A children's check-up at Hocking Dental Care covers decay, bite, and jaw and gum development. Each of those means something different at three, at eight and at fourteen, and part of the value of coming to one practice is that we are comparing this year against last rather than forming a first impression.

Decay, particularly on the biting surfaces of the back teeth and between the molars, where a brush cannot reach and where a parent cannot see.
Whether the baby teeth are being lost in the right order and at roughly the right time. Both early and late tell us something.
How much room the adult teeth have to come into, which is often visible years before crowding is obvious.
Bite: whether the top and bottom teeth meet as they should, and whether a thumb, a dummy or mouth-breathing is changing that.
Whether the deep grooves in newly arrived adult molars would benefit from a fissure sealant, which is quick and needs neither a drill nor a needle.
Gum health, which matters in children more than most parents expect, especially through the teenage years.

Common questions

Children’s Dentistry: your questions answered

How do I get a two-year-old to open their mouth?: Usually by not making it the point of the visit. The first appointment often ends with a count of the teeth done on a parent's lap and nothing else, and that is a successful appointment. What we are buying is the second one, and the tenth. Children who have been coming since before they can remember rarely become adults who avoid it.
At what age can they sit in the chair alone?: It varies far more than parents expect — some are happy at three, some want a parent beside them at nine. There is no age at which it should be forced. We follow the child's lead and it sorts itself out.
Do children need X-rays?: Sometimes, and much less often than adults. The usual reason is to see between the back teeth where decay hides, or to check that adult teeth are present and heading the right way. Digital X-rays use a fraction of the radiation of old film, and we take them when there is a question they will answer, not routinely.
What is a fissure sealant and does my child need one?: A thin coating painted into the deep grooves of the biting surface of an adult back tooth, so food cannot pack into a crevice narrower than a toothbrush bristle. No drilling, no needle, a few minutes per tooth. They are worth most in the first couple of years after the adult molars arrive, at roughly six and twelve, and we will tell you which teeth would benefit rather than sealing everything.
My child grinds their teeth at night. Should I worry?: Grinding is very common in children and most grow out of it without any treatment. Mention it at the check-up so we can look for wear and check how the teeth are meeting. A night guard is rarely the answer at that age, partly because the mouth is still changing shape.
Is thumb-sucking really a problem?: Not in a toddler. It becomes worth addressing when it continues past about four, or once the adult front teeth are arriving, because sustained pressure at that stage changes how the front teeth meet and how the palate grows. We would rather look at it and tell you it is fine than have you worry about it for two years.
Does the Child Dental Benefits Schedule cover this?: For eligible children aged 2 to 17, the CDBS covers check-ups, X-rays, cleaning, fissure sealing, fillings, root canals and extractions. Eligibility is assessed by Services Australia and generally follows a family payment such as Family Tax Benefit Part A. Ring us when you book and we can check the remaining balance for you.
When should braces be looked at?: An assessment around eight or nine is usually sensible, which is well before most children have any braces fitted. At that age the adult front teeth and first molars are in, so crowding and bite problems are visible while the jaw is still growing. If orthodontic treatment is warranted we will refer you, and if it is not we will say so.

All frequently asked questions

Decay in baby teeth is not a small problem

The most common thing we are told is that they are going to fall out anyway. It is the one piece of received wisdom worth correcting.

Baby teeth hold the space for the adult teeth forming directly above and below them, and they do it until as late as twelve or thirteen for the back ones. A baby molar lost early lets the teeth beside it drift into the gap, and the adult tooth that was supposed to arrive there finds no room and comes in crooked or stays buried.

Decay in a baby tooth also sits a few millimetres from the adult tooth still developing above it. An abscess there can affect how that adult tooth forms — its shape and the quality of its enamel — before it has ever appeared in the mouth.

And baby teeth hurt exactly as much as adult ones. Toothache is a very common reason children miss school, and it is almost entirely preventable.

The things that cause most of the decay we see

Very little of it is confectionery. Most of it is frequency, and most of that is drinks.

Habit	Why it does damage	What tends to work instead
A bottle or sipper cup of milk or juice at bedtime	Saliva flow drops during sleep, so whatever is on the teeth stays there for hours with nothing to neutralise it. This is the single most damaging habit in early childhood.	Water only after the last brush. If a bottle is needed to settle, it is water in it.
Sipping juice or cordial through the day	Every sip restarts an acid attack that takes about half an hour to recover from. Sipping across an afternoon means the enamel never recovers at all.	Drinks with meals; water between them. Diluting juice does not help much — it is the frequency, not the concentration.
Grazing on snacks	Same mechanism as sipping. Eight small snacks do far more damage than one larger one.	Two or three set snack times rather than an open kitchen.
Sticky and chewy sweets	They stay on the teeth long after the eating has finished, in the grooves where brushing does not reach.	If they are being eaten, at the end of a meal rather than between meals, and a brush afterwards.
Sports drinks and flavoured water	Acidic as well as sweet, and taken exactly the way that does most harm — slowly, over an hour, during exercise when the mouth is already dry.	Water for training. Sports drinks are for endurance events, not junior sport.

If your child is frightened

Dental fear is nearly always learned, usually from an adult, and usually from a single appointment that went badly.

We explain each step to the child before we do it, in words rather than instrument names, and we stop when the child asks us to. That last part matters more than anything else in the appointment: a child who learns that saying stop actually stops things is a child who will let us continue.

Tell reception when you book, not when you arrive. It changes how much time we allow, and time is most of the answer.
Avoid the reassuring words. “It won't hurt” introduces the idea of hurting; “they're just going to count your teeth” does not.
Book early in the day if you can. Tired children have less patience for anything new.
If you are nervous about dentists yourself, consider sending the other parent, or say so quietly to us. Children read adults very accurately.
First visits that end with nothing done are not wasted visits. They are the investment that makes the visit where something is needed go smoothly.

Knocks, chips and knocked-out teeth

Our dental care for children also covers trauma and emergencies: knocked-out teeth, chipped teeth and root fractures. Playgrounds, trampolines, scooters and sport account for most of it, and almost all of it is time-sensitive.

For a chipped tooth, find the fragment if you can and bring it in — it is sometimes reusable. For anything involving a blow to the head, drowsiness or a cut that will not stop bleeding, a hospital comes before a dentist.

Mouthguards are the other half of this. A custom-fitted guard for football, hockey, basketball or martial arts costs a fraction of repairing a broken front tooth, and unlike a boil-and-bite guard it stays in place when it is hit.

Family & Children

Other family & children treatments

One clinic for every age in the house, from first tooth to retirement.

Family DentistryEvery age in the family, one practice

Next step

Book about children’s dentistry

We will go through the options, what each involves, and what your health fund covers, before anything begins.

Call (08) 9306 2755

Which system do you use?

Which system do you use?

Childrens Dentistry

Which system do you use?

What a first visit actually looks like

What we check as a child grows

Which system do you use?

Children’s Dentistry: your questions answered

Decay in baby teeth is not a small problem

The things that cause most of the decay we see

If your child is frightened

Knocks, chips and knocked-out teeth

Other family & children treatments

Book about children’s dentistry

Which system do you use?

Which system do you use?