Why Choose A Special Needs Dentist For Your Child With Sensory Seeking Needs?

Dentist Blog

When you have a child who has sensory processing disorder, or SPD, you know that every day poses a potential new challenge or adventure for your young one. Commonly, children with sensory processing disorder have either sensory avoidance or sensory seeking tendencies, and many children have both.

Going to the dentist can be a trying time for anyone with SPD because there are many sensations, sounds, sights, and feelings going on in the dentist's chair. Even a routine cleaning can be stressful for a child with SPD, but a child who is sensory seeking may have a different experience than one who has sensory avoidance tendencies.

A special needs dentist can help your SPD child have a safe and positive experience while at the dentist, whether they are getting a routine cleaning or they are needing more extensive work done. Here are reasons why.

A special needs dentist can tell if your child is in pain

A child who is sensory seeking may actively be a daredevil or seek out activities that are more daring or extreme than other kids might, even those who are not sensory sensitive. For this reason, your child may be able to endure more dental work and pain than other children while appearing to be not distressed at all. This can be a good thing to a point, but can also make it harder for you to be able to keep your child truly comfortable. A special needs dentist will use their skills and experience to be able to determine your child's comfort levels and can also use special tools to help keep your child safe in the dentist's chair even if they don't appear to be in any type of discomfort at all.

A special needs dentist can tell if your child needs more dental work

When your child has sensory seeking tendencies, they may be more likely to encounter more serious dental needs before anyone discovers it. This is due in part to your child's ability to endure more pain or discomfort than other kids and partly to the activities your child might engage in that others might not.

Your child with SPD may have more chips or cracks in their teeth than other children or may have an abscessed tooth go unnoticed for longer because they don't notice the discomfort or urgency to get their situation checked out. A special needs dentist will anticipate this in your child and will know to make more extensive dental checkups in your child so dental needs can be discovered more readily.

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30 December 2020

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