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Special Needs Dental Care At Dumont,NJ

Special Needs Dentistry

Special needs, or special care, dentistry involved diagnosing and providing oral healthcare and procedures to patients with intellectual and/or cognitive disabilities, or who are affected by other physical, medical, or emotional issues.

What is Special Needs Dentistry?

At Palisades Dental Care, we understand that caring for children with special needs requires understanding, knowledge, and compassion. While it’s true that many dentists in the Dumont area can accommodate these patients, we are able to meet the needs of most of these patients. If you or someone you know has special needs, discuss our sedation options today.
Special Needs Dentistry

How Palisades Dental Care is unique in handling special needs?

At Palisades Dental Care, our team has the experience and expertise required for treating children with special needs with a level of care and compassion that you won’t find anywhere else.

What to Expect During a Special Needs Dental Appointment

The team at Palisades Dental Care wants to help you understand how our pediatric special needs appointments work. We have broken the appointment down into 5 stages:

Exam

First, the patient will be taken to a separate room for an exam. If needed, we will allow the parent/guardian to come to the exam room with the patient to ease their anxiety.

Anesthesia

An anesthesia evaluation will be conducted to collect information about the patient, as well as explain the risks before it will be administered. If there are any questions or concerns about anesthesia, they will be addressed at this time.

Establishing Treatment Plan

Depending on the issue, additional examination may be done, including x-rays to help the dental team establish a treatment plan.

Procedure

Once the treatment plan has been established, the dental team will move forward with treatment. It’s critical that this part goes quickly to ensure the patient isn’t under anesthesia for too long.

Recovery/Discharge

The patient will be moved to a recovery room for the anesthesia to wear off. Once it has worn completely off, the patient will be discharged, and the caregiver will be given post-treatment instructions.
Use of Sedation Dentistry to Keep Special Needs Patients Comfortable​

Use of Sedation Dentistry to Keep Special Needs Patients Comfortable

At Palisades Dental Care, we want to create a positive experience for all our patients, including our special needs patients. This will help them to be more relaxed during their future dental appointments. That is why we use sedation dentistry: oral conscious sedation, nitrous oxide, or general anesthesia.

Schedule Your Special Needs Appointment Today

If you are the parent or caregiver of a child with special needs in or near Dumont, New Jersey, contact Palisades Dental Care. We will be happy to work with you and your child to address their dental issues. We strive to create a positive, relaxing environment to ensure that the process is smooth.

FAQs

We understand that parents and caregivers of special needs patients often have questions about this area of dentistry. We are here to answer your questions and give you peace of mind. Some of the most common questions we are asked include:

Special needs patients are individuals who have cognitive, physical, developmental, medical, or emotional conditions and require special consideration when undergoing dental treatments. This includes a variety of conditions that make standard dental procedures challenging, including:

Autism Spectrum Disorder
Genetic disorders
Down Syndrome
Spinal cord injuries

The definition of dental neglect was created in 1983 by the Child Abuse Subcommittee of the Clinical Affairs Committee. The current definition is the 6th reaffirmation of the 1992 version. Dental neglect is defined as the willful failure of a parent/guardian to seek/follow through with dental care required to ensure oral health essential for acceptable function and freedom from infection/pain.

At Palisades Dental Care, we offer several sedation options for pediatric special needs patients. These options are:

Oral Conscious Sedation: an oral sedative is given to the patient to help them to relax. They are awake and able to respond to commands, but they may fall asleep.
Nitrous Oxide: nitrous oxide is a combination if nitrous oxide and oxygen. The patient breathes it in and feels relaxed and euphoric. This eases anxiety but still allows the patient to be awake so they can respond to commands. After the procedure, the mask is removed, and the effects wear off quickly after breathing clean air for a few minutes.
General anesthesia: if treatment cannot safely be completed while the patient is awake and nitrous oxide won’t be effective, we do offer general anesthesia. This puts them into a deep sleep, so they won’t feel or remember anything. The anesthesia is administered, and the patient is monitored by a board-certified anesthesiologist.

Palisades Dental Care

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