As a parent, you want to instill lifelong good health habits and practices in your child's life. One of those practices is making regular trips to the dentist. However, for one reason or another, most children have an unhealthy fear and dislike of the dentist. There are ways that you can get your child more comfortable going to the dentist, though. Get to know some of these methods. Then, you can get your child to the family dentistry clinic regularly and build those all-important healthy habits in their life. 

Take Them When They Are Young

One of the ways that you can go about getting your child to be comfortable going to the dentist is to start them young. When your child first starts to get baby teeth in, you can take them to the dentist to be checked out. This checkup will set a precedent for going to the dentist regularly before they are even aware they are going. 

It is a good idea to try to stick with the same dentist through your child's youth if possible. This is why a family dentistry clinic is ideal as they specialize in the dental care and health of people of all ages. 

Be Careful How You Describe Dental Care

If your child needs to have a cavity filled or a tooth pulled at some point or even if they just need routine dental care, you want to be careful of the word you use to describe dental care. Children will inevitably have questions about the care they are going to receive. They will want to know if it will hurt, what is going to happen, and a myriad of other facts. 

Choose your words carefully. Avoid talking about pain, hurt, discomfort, or anything else negative. For a dental cleaning, for example, tell your child simply that food sometimes sticks to teeth and the dentist is helping get that food off of their teeth (or something along those lines). It is better to avoid scaring them beforehand so that they do not misbehave or throw a fit about going to the dentist when the time comes. 

Try a Pretend Visit

When your child is old enough to really start questioning you about the dentist and what is going to happen during the appointment, they may begin to experience some anxiety in the process. To help quell their fears and reduce their anxiety, you may want to take them on a pretend visit to the dentist. 

They will go in and basically have a trial run of the dental appointment. Your child will get to see the office, meet the hygienists and dentist, sit in the dental chair, and get an explanation from the dentist of what will happen and what all of the equipment is used for. This will help them be ready and calm the day of their actual appointment. 

Now that you know a few of the ways to help your child get comfortable with going to the dentist, you can get started right away. Speak to family dentists like James V Bachman DMD to get more ideas.