When selecting dental services to attend to by your family, you may ask yourself, which is the best dentist to attend, should you visit a family dentist or a pediatric dentist, particularly when it comes to the children. Although the two types of dentists aim at keeping oral health, they are different in terms of training, focus, environment, and approach, which is why consulting a General Dentist can help guide you in making the right choice. The knowledge of these differences will assist in making choices on the kind of dental care that will best fit the needs of your family.
Patient Age Range
Age is one of the most evident differences between family and pediatric dentistry, given the difference in the age group of patients that a given specialist treats:
Pediatric Dentists: The elderly specialise in infants, children, or adolescents. They handle patients usually when the first baby tooth erupts till the teenage years; they are also aware of all the stages of dental progression.
Family Dentists: Family dentists deal with patients of any age, starting with toddlers and including grandparents. One dental practice may treat the whole family and thus giving continuity and convenience when delivering care across the generations.
Training and Expertise
Although both pediatric and family dentists have the same level of dental training in regular dental school, the former also acquire extra specialised training:
When dentists have their dental degree, they undertake 2 or 3 years of postgraduate education on the oral care of children. This involves comprehensive research on the psychology of children, their growth and development, how to handle their behaviour and how to treat them especially infants and young patients.
Family dentists are trained as general dentists and trained to serve all age groups without any additional residency training as pediatric dentists.
This additional training also provides the pediatric dentists with special skills in dealing with the unique needs of children like preventing early cavities, infant oral health, and providing dental behavioural guidance.
Scope of Services
Both classes of dentists offer general dental treatment such as routine check-ups, cleaning, treating fluoride and fillings. The focus of the services varies, however:
Pediatric Dentists: They are specialists in child-specific preventive and developmental care. This involves a premature assessment of development, dental phobia, addressing dental complications prevalent among children, and specialised preventive training. Pediatric dentists also have experience in observing habits (such as thumb-sucking).
Family Dentists: Family Dentists provide a complete spectrum of dentistry services that appeal to all age groups including the restoration of oral health services such as crowns, bridges, and cosmetic services. They also assist in keeping oral health in the long term.
Office Environment
The way in which a child feels comfortable in the dentist can have an enormous impact on the way this child feels about dental care. This is portrayed in the atmosphere of the dental office:
Pediatric Dental Offices: These are those that are designed exclusively with children in mind. The use of bright colours, kid-like decor, dental chairs of child sizes, child toys, and entertaining waiting areas all make those visits more fun, less intimidating and stress-free to the young patients. A child-friendly language and distraction are also used by the pediatric staff to make the children feel comfortable.
Family Dental Offices: This is quite a welcoming atmosphere, but tends to be more neutral and professional than otherwise to suit all patients regardless of their age. Certain family practices might provide a child-friendly method, which is typically lacking a specialised arrangement in the pediatric offices.
