Restorative Care
At Waterloo Pediatric Dentistry, we understand that sometimes children may require restorative dental care to address dental issues such as cavities. Dr Alison is committed to providing gentle and effective restorative treatments that help your child maintain a healthy and beautiful smile.
We use the latest dental technology and techniques to provide a wide range of restorative services, including fillings, crowns, and root canals. We take the time to explain the procedure and answer any questions you and your child may have, ensuring that you feel comfortable and confident throughout the process. Our goal is to provide the highest level of care while minimizing discomfort and anxiety for your child.
If you suspect that your child may require restorative dental care, we encourage you to schedule an appointment with us as soon as possible. Early intervention can help prevent further dental issues and ensure that your child’s teeth and gums remain healthy. Our team is dedicated to working with you to develop a personalized treatment plan that meets your child’s unique needs and promotes good oral health.
Minimally-Invasive Restorative Dentistry
In addition to traditional dental restorative options like crowns and fillings, we offer drill-less dentistry techniques like SDF and the Hall crown technique. These options may not be the right fit for every child or every tooth, but by focusing on minimally-invasive techniques, our team can help to ensure your child feels safe and comfortable.
Tooth Colored Fillings
We offer composite dental fillings at our practice, which are made from a special type of dental resin. Tooth-colored composite fillings strengthen the tooth and provide a natural smile for your child.
Stainless Steel Crowns
Pre-made stainless steel crowns are ideal for baby teeth (and some adult teeth), as they are very durable, last longer than fillings, are inexpensive, and can be placed in just a single appointment. They’re actually less invasive than dental filling as we remove less of the tooth, and offer a 95% success rate. These “tooth helmets or princess crowns” can be placed with the standard crown method (which is when we drill into the tooth to clean the cavity out and then cement the crown on top) or in some cases with the Hall crown technique (which requires no shots or drilling!).
Pulpotomies
A pulpotomy is used for baby teeth that are decayed and infected to the nerve. It involves opening a hole in the tooth, removing the top part of the infected nerve from inside the tooth, and placing a healing dressing on the remaining nerve tissue. This encourages the tooth and remaining nerve to heal, and restores your child’s tooth. Unlike an adult tooth “root canal,” this procedure and the final crown are done quickly and in the same appointment for your child.
Extractions
We offer the most gentle baby and adult tooth extractions possible, including extraction of adult teeth needed to make room for braces or due to large cavities.
Space Maintainers
If your child loses a baby tooth early, they may need a space maintainer. These are placed in the area where their missing tooth used to be. This helps ensure that the surrounding teeth don’t shift, which could cause crowding and interfere with proper dental development.
Frenectomy
A frenectomy may be required if your child has tongue tie (ankyloglossia). This procedure involves snipping the band of tissue that restricts your child’s oral range of motion, restoring the proper function of their lips or tongue.
This technique has become a popular topic to discuss on social media and we feel that it is important to note that not every child needs their tongue “clipped” just because they have thick tissue present under their tongue or top lip. Though Dr. Alison does perform and offer this procedure, she takes a holistic approach to classify the type of tongue or lip attachment, and review any feeding or speech concerns before offering this service.
We, of course, only want to diagnose and treat the patients that actually need this procedure and do not take the recommendation of surgery to any infant or child lightly.
