As a family dentist, you can really benefit from creating a kid-friendly environment. Making your practice appealing to the younger crowd can provide them with a less stressful experience and bring you more business. From decorating your waiting room and improving your communication methods, aiming your business at children just makes sense.  

Decor

You can create either a separate small children's waiting room or choose a corner of a larger waiting room and decorate it in an animal or cartoon motif. In that special section, you should have a TV and perhaps a DVD player. Allowing kids to watch fun and friendly family movies while they wait allows them to relax and put aside their fears. Books and safe toys are also a good choice. Try to keep the area simple, however, to spare your staff a difficult clean-up period at the end of every day. Having this type of area is particularly important for first-time patients who may be quite anxious. 

Respect

Treating even small children with respect is important in gaining their trust. You need to invest them with some sense of control. Your staff should make a point of introducing themselves to the children as well as their patients. They should also communicate with children from a kneeling position, if possible. Kids need to feel that staff members are their friends and not just strange, scary adults. 

Vocabulary

Developing a special vocabulary to discuss procedures with children can be extremely helpful in putting them at ease. For instance, one dentist calls a tooth extraction a "wiggle out." They also call fillings "mouth stars" or "tooth stars." A drill is a "tooth cleaner." You can use these fun terms or create ones of your own. Communicating with children in this way relieves their fears and can even add an element of fun to their dental visit. Previously scary procedures can begin to seem almost entertaining.

In the past, not many dental practices specialized in children's needs. Now there are many kid-only and family practices that have a significant number of clients under age 12. You can capitalize on this dental trend by adding a few child-centric aspects to your practice. An inviting decor combined with a respectful manner and child-tailored communication can make your young patients satisfied customers, leading you to increase your client base. A kid-friendly dental practice (such as Carpenter Dental, Charles M. Carpenter DMD, and Chas M. Carpenter DMD) also makes the dental visit easier on the parents, so everyone wins.

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