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Are you looking for a pediatric dentist near Lorton, Newington, or Fort Belvoir area? Whether it’s your baby’s first dental appointment or you’re seeking a new dentist to continue care, we’d love to tell you more about Petite Smiles in Lorton, VA.
At our dentistry for kids, Dr. Heba Rashed and her team partner with families to ensure that their youngsters’ smiles properly develop without sacrificing quality care. Our goal is to make visiting the dentist an engaging environment for kids and a peaceful place for parents to catch their breaths.
Our Petite Smile team emphasizes:
If you pencil in consistent homework, meal, or bedtime schedules, you’ve probably already noticed that most kids thrive in routine. Consistency is a choice, and every time you and your child walk into our doors, he or she can expect to be warmly greeted by the same friendly faces of Dr. Rashed and see her team plus a well-manicured lobby and treatment areas. We’ll go over the same general routines, which include stating clear, kid-friendly expectations before the treatment, valuing their voice (no matter how small), and learning new tactics to keep their teeth and gums healthy.
At Petite Smiles, we reimagine dental care by reducing our daily carbon footprint. One of our priorities as a practice is to be more sustainable so that the very patients that we serve can continue to enjoy a green earth. Also, we want to be active role models for our young patients on the importance of the three R’s: reusing, reducing, and recycling. Some ways that we accomplish this include:
We take responsibility for meeting the demands of caring for your little ones while reducing the effect on natural resources. We can simultaneously provide excellent pediatric dental care while being good stewards of the Earth by maintaining high standards of care, safety standards, and environmental impact.
We take responsibility for meeting the demands of caring for your little ones while reducing the effect on natural resources. We can simultaneously provide excellent pediatric dental care while being good stewards of the Earth by maintaining high standards of care, safety standards, and environmental impact.
Petite Smiles is your home for world-class dental care in the heart of Lorton. Aside from our extended list of evidence-based children’s dental services with state-of-the-art technology, we provide luxury amenities for the entire family.
In a world fascinated with automating and creating faster experiences, we don’t want to rush your child’s dentistry experience. Therefore, we don’t believe in hurrying along any part of your child’s dentistry appointment.
We want to take the time to patiently treat and educate your child in our spa-inspired treatment rooms while you have a rare moment to sit back and relax in our chic parents’ lounge.
While it seems like kids grow up in the blink of an eye, we understand that this chapter of life is not only special but molds them into the adult that they will one day become. Therefore, we want to make visiting the dentist a memorable moment for your child so that they have a positive attitude towards dental health and eventually take pride in taking care of themselves.
Not all dentists are great with kids, but our team has undergone extensive training to treat kids and understand them too. At petite smiles we:
At Petite Smiles, we understand that parents are equally part of the pediatric dentistry experience. Thus, we kept parents in mind when designing different aspects of our practice. From offering same-day dental appointments to never skimping on extravagance, we believe that our parents deserve to be pampered partners in their children’s pediatric dentistry experience.
Tooth decay is the number one chronic infectious disease among kids in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By age 5, about 60 percent of children will have had tooth decay at some point, including the 40 percent of children who have it when they enter kindergarten.
As soon as baby teeth come in, there is the potential for tooth decay. Baby teeth serve as the blueprint and pathway for permanent teeth. So even though they eventually fall out, preventing tooth decay in baby teeth is one way to avoid future problems in permanent teeth.
As is the case with an infection anywhere in the body, an untreated infection will cause significant pain and can result in death in rare cases.
Along with pain, children with untreated tooth decay also experience difficulty chewing, problems speaking, insufficient sleep and resulting self-esteem problems.
A “Dental Home” is the home base for a child’s oral health care needs – much like a pediatrician oversees a child’s overall health through the year.
Parents and caregivers should start bringing their child to their selected pediatric dentist by the age of 1 to prevent tooth decay.
Simply put, there just hasn’t been enough education about when kids should start seeing the dentist – and that’s why AAPD is focused on educating parents and caregivers about the importance of an age 1 visit.
Establishing a Dental Home by the age of 1 is the best way to establish a child’s oral health routine early and ultimately prevent tooth decay.
Pediatric dentists are specialists just for kids. They have two to three years of training beyond dental school which is focused on child psychology, growth and development and treating people with special health care needs.
As a parent of a child with special needs, you may have concerns about your child’s tolerance of a dental visit. Whatever your concerns, do not postpone preventive dentistry for your child. Pediatric dentists understand that each child is unique and may need extra care to feel comfortable during dental treatment. For example, one child might do great with positive communication, another might benefit from a body blanket to help control involuntary movements, and still another might need mild sedation to feel relaxed during treatment. Pediatric dentists stand ready with a variety of possible approaches; you can help select the approach that is best for the specific health and behavioral needs of your child.
The medical literature shows fluoride is a safe and effective tactic to reduce the occurrence of cavities.
However, as is the case with any supplement or treatment, correct dosage is key to a product’s safety. When it comes to using fluoride toothpaste, children under the age of 3 should have no more than a ‘smear’ or ‘rice-size’ amount of the paste on their toothbrush and kids aged 3-6 should only have a ‘pea-size’ amount on their toothbrush.
It’s important to establish a dental home – a home base for your child’s dental needs – by the time a child turns 1 so parents have an opportunity to ask questions of their child’s pediatric dentist.
SPEAKER NOTE: The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s policy on the use of fluoride can be found at: http://www.aapd.org/media/Policies_Guidelines/P_FluorideUse.pdf
Are you ready to meet your child’s new favorite dentist? Schedule your next kids’ dental appointment with Dr. Rashed by calling (703) 688-2155 or messaging us online.
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