Does My Child Need To Go To The Hospital For Dental Treatment?
Not all children can be treated in an office setting. Children can be overly nervous and active, or just difficult to treat due to behavioral or developmental difficulties. Your pediatric specialists at South Miami Pediatric Dental Associates, in Miami, FL, are here to help your child feel comfortable and secure.
Dentistry can be performed in a hospital setting for certain conditions including:
- Severe Anxiety
- Cerebral Palsy
- Autism
- Behavioral Disorders
- Physical Mobility Impairments
- Special Needs
- Down Syndrome
- Complex Medical Disorders
There are also cases where a child may need extensive dental treatment. In these cases, it is often advisable to sedate a child with general anesthesia, putting them to sleep completely. When the child wakes, all treatment is complete, allowing the child an anxiety and pain-free visit.
At South Miami Pediatric Dental Associates, your child will receive a comprehensive examination at the first visit, and you, as a parent, can discuss your concerns about your child’s treatment. Your pediatric specialist will also determine how cooperative your child might be during treatment. A child’s cooperation level can also be a reason why your child might need services performed in the hospital.
The Frankl Behavioral Rating Scale
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry posts a system to rate a child’s cooperation level on its website. Known as the Frankl Behavioral Rating Scale, it is a helpful method for dental providers to rate how children react to treatment using plus or minus characters:
-- Definitely Negative ; Refusal of treatment, forceful crying, fearfulness, or any other overt evidence of extreme negativism
- Negative ; Reluctance to accept treatment, uncooperative, some evidence of negative attitude but not pronounced (sullen, withdrawn)
+ Positive ; Acceptance of treatment; cautious behavior at times; willingness to comply with the dentist, at times with reservation, but patient follows the dentist’s directions cooperatively
++ Definitely Positive ; Good rapport with the dentist, interest in the dental procedures, laughter and enjoyment
The Frankl Scale provides a baseline of a child’s initial behavior, and can also be used to measure a child’s progress toward becoming less combative and more accepting of treatment.
General anesthesia is often the sedation method of choice for a hospital visit, but there are other methods of less profound anesthesia, while still allowing your child to relax.
To find out more about the sedation options available, whether your child is seen in the office, or requires hospital care, please visit our pediatric sedation page for more information.
You want the very best dental care for your child, so come see the experts in children’s dentistry. Call (305) 666-2068 today and make your appointment at South Miami Pediatric Dental Associates!