Our Services
Initial Consultation
During your free initial consultation, you and your child will meet with Dr. Sophie in our special consultation room, designed specifically without an exam chair to reduce any fear or intimidation and help your child get comfortable with us. Dr. Sophie will start by building a customized plan for your child's first exam visit. The plan will outline the type of exam, x-rays, cleaning, and possible fluoride treatment is needed. She will then introduce your child to the basics of preventive dental care and tell them what to expect the next time they see her. This allows Dr. Sophie to learn a little about you child so that our first comprehensive exam visit is a success. |
Pediatric Dental Check-Ups
It is highly recommend that children see their pediatric dentist for a general preventative care visit at least every 6 months. Our preventive dental care visits are designed to engage the whole family in positive oral health practices. At Sunnysdie, your child’s visits will be custom tailored to their needs and will include:
You and your child will have your own private exam room. Each dental chair has a TV positioned above the headrest that we can use to play videos, music, or look at pictures of you child's teeth together. During visits, Dr. Sophie will also frequently use weighted blankets, de-sensitization techniques, and thera-tappers (an alternating vibration that provides a gentle tactile stimulation many children find soothing and relaxing) to help distract the brain a reduce anxiety. If there is anything that we should know about your child that can help us to improve their experience please let us know. |
Baby's First Visit
When you child starts getting teeth you will likely have many questions about how to best care for them. Who best to answer those questions that a Pediatric Dentist? Dr. Sophie is specially trained and has extensive experience helping parents just like you navigate the complex world of pediatric oral health! All children should establish their Dental Home within 6 months of when their first tooth comes in or by their first birthday, even if they don’t have any teeth yet. Children who establish their dental home early have better overall oral health outcomes. It also helps to promote a positive experience with dental care. |
Patients with Special Needs
Our patient centered model encourages kids with a variety of adaptational needs to excel at the dentist. Dr. Sophie went through a year of additional training focused on the care of patients with complex medical, social and dental care needs. She has lots of experience developing child specific adaptations to her practice to provide appropriate care in a safe, compassionate and supportive way. Reflected in our approach, children and adults with special healthcare needs benefit greatly from building a strong relationship with their oral healthcare team and developing a systematic routine for their preventive dental care visits. We believe all children can improve their dental experience. When treating children with special needs, we take the time to work with you to identify your child's specific dental care challenges. We then come up with a plan to help with behavior guidance, address de-sensitization needs, and foster better preventive dental visits. Our office has been renovated to improve ADA accessibility throughout. It is designed to feel comfortable and inviting, with careful attention paid to our selection of toys and activities which help improve the overall patient experience and develop comfort, confidence and trust. |
Nitrous Oxide and Local Anesthesia
As needed, Dr. Sophie will use nitrous oxide during restorative and surgical treatment to help patients better tolerate treatment visits, especially when local anesthesia will be used. Nitrous oxide is a colorless gas, that when administered at low doses helps to reduce anxiety, gag reflex, pain threshold, and alter the perception of time. The most common side effect is nausea, but is very rare so long as patients remember not to eat anything for 2 hours before their visit. In most cases, when providing local anesthesia, Dr. Sophie will use her “Magic Wand”, a computer-assisted anesthesia injection device that dramatically reduces discomfort for our patients. Used in combination with a topical numbing gel, our patients report minimal pinch or pain when getting numbed. |
Sedation and General Anesthesia
We always encourage kids to be brave and work with them to develop a behavior guidance strategy to help them be the best patient they can be. Our goal is to provide care for our patients in the office without sedation or general anesthesia. However there are times when, for the safety and well-being of the child, sedation/general anesthesia is needed to provide necessary dental care. To provide our patients with the highest quality anesthesia services Dr. Sophie has access to the PDI surgery center in Windsor, CA. This surgery center is specially designed for dental patients. Their top notch anesthesiology team has extensive training and experience, having treated over 8,000 children in the last 12 years. |