A large number of young patients dread visiting their family dentist for simple dental procedures. For such patients, the thought of going through an oral surgery is more than frightening.

A parent is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that they make the thought of oral surgery less-frightening for their child(ren). Discussed in this article are answers to two questions that concerned parents often have in relation to pediatric oral surgery.

Why Must One Pay For A Medical Evaluation And A Dental Evaluation Before Surgery?

Before an appointment is made with an oral surgeon, a parent will have to take his or her children for a full medical evaluation at the doctor's office and a full dental evaluation at the family dentist's office.

A full medical evaluation is required to determine whether a potential candidate for pediatric oral surgery has pre-existing medical conditions that may cause complications during surgery, or conditions that may compromise the effectiveness of surgery as an intervention for a child's problem.

On the other hand, a dental evaluation is needed to establish the status of the child's dentition. Through the dental evaluation, a family dentist will establish whether potential candidates for pediatric oral surgery have developing tooth follicles in their oral cavity. The presence of these follicles increases the risk of traumatic injuries on a child during surgery. Such injuries can have long-term negative effects on a child's future growth and development.

How Do Oral Surgeons Deal With Child Anxiety?

A child is bound to have various unvoiced fears about going for an oral surgery, and dental health practitioners understand this all too well. During the actual procedure, sedatives are administered to the young patients so that they're able to sleep through the procedure. This is commonly done through the administration of local anesthetics and/or nitrous oxide gas.

Before it gets to this point however, the young patient is taken through a session of behavioral guidance in a bid to bring down his or her levels of anxiety. Behavioral guidance allows a dental health practitioner to assess the social, psychological and emotional status of a patient before the actual surgery. During this assessment, the child gets an opportunity to have their questions about the procedure answered by the practitioner and their fears addressed.

As a responsible parent, it is important to share relevant and factual information with potential candidates of pediatric oral surgery as this might boost their confidence levels with regards to the procedure at hand.