Still have questions? We have answers.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children have their first dental visit at age 12 months. We completely agree with them!
We see 12 month old babies on up to about age 12-13, or until big kids decide they are too cool for us. Usually by then they have most of their adult teeth, and they’re ready for one of those boring, adult dental practices.
Parents are welcome to accompany their children to the exam room for both routine checkups and restorative procedures. Of course, if you prefer to stay in our “back yard” waiting area and get your turn with our Nabi2 tablets, you are welcome to do that as well. We leave this decision up to the parents and child at each visit. Our hope is that eventually our Little Grinners will be comfortable with us and be able to come back for their dental visit independently. Either way, Dr. Craig will always visit directly with our Little Grinners’ parent/responsible adult to keep them updated on what was done during the appointment and what the next steps are.
All kinds of fun stuff happens at our office when we see a new Little Grinner for the first time. We always start off with a romp in the play gym, and the fun continues from there. For details on what a typical first visit to our office is like, visit our patient information page.
Unless it is an emergency situation, we try not to do restorative procedures (aka things that require sparkly gel and our special brush for getting food out) on a first visit. If your child has been diagnosed by another dentist, we are happy to look at existing x-rays and treatment plans at your first visit, which will either be a typical cleaning, or what is called a “limited exam”, based on your child’s age and dental history.
A typical appointment usually takes about 45 minutes.
We schedule appointments starting at 7:45am and ending at 4:15pm. Those 4:15pm appointments fill up very quickly.
We do not file MO HealthNet, which is the medicaid plan in Missouri. For more information on how our office handles insurance and other payment options, visit our Insurance Information page.
We are in-network providers for DeltaDental PPO and Premier, MetDental, Humana, Assurant PPO, Aetna PPO, and United Healthcare. We are also able to file other private insurance claims as an out-of-network provider. For more information on how we handle insurance, visit our insurance information page.
There are many factors that can change what fees are charged for a child’s dental visit, including dental history, age, behavior (which affects what procedures we are able to do), and severity of existing dental issues.
For most small cavities, we only do tooth colored fillings. In situations where most of the tooth has decayed, we have to use silver caps which are also known as stainless steel crowns. We do not use colored (such as pink, blue, green) fillings, because then it just looks like your teeth are full of food, and we have to start all over with a cleaning again.
We use nitrous (happy gas) in some restorative appointments to help our more apprehensive patients relax. We regret that we are unable to provide nitrous to apprehensive parents. We do not do in-office oral sedation. We do provide full-sedation surgery services at the C. Rex Witherspoon Surgery Center when necessary.
No, but we know some really awesome Orthodontists who do. We’ll be happy to refer you to one of them based on your needs and location.
It typically takes about six months for a small cavity to develop, so by scheduling a check-up every six months, we’re making sure that nothing gets out of hand in our Little Grinners’ mouths! Plus, we would miss you too much if we only got to see you once per year.
The incredible Sherri Davis of Murals by Sherri Davis did. We are totally thrilled with her work and highly recommend her. You can learn more about her on her website.