Why Parents Put Off Their Own Dental Care, and What Some Practices Are Changing

By Your Health Magazine Contributor

Your Health Magazine Contributor

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Why Parents Put Off Their Own Dental Care, and What Some Practices Are Changing

Why Parents Put Off Their Own Dental Care

Ask a parent of young children when they last had a dental cleaning and the answer is often vague. The reason usually has nothing to do with fear of the chair or the cost of the visit. It comes down to a simpler problem: there is nowhere for the kids to go for the hour the appointment takes.

Preventive care is easy to postpone because nothing appears to be wrong. A cleaning does not feel urgent the way a toothache does. When a parent is weighing an hour in the dental chair against finding a sitter, rearranging a work schedule, or asking a family member for a favor, the appointment is what gives way. Then it gives way again the following month.

The workarounds, and where they break down

Most parents have tried some version of the same handful of solutions. They book during school hours, which limits them to a narrow window and rules out anyone with a child under five. They trade off with a partner, which works until schedules stop lining up. Some bring the children along and hope for the best, which tends to mean a rushed appointment and a hygienist working around a toddler in the corner.

None of these are bad ideas. They just fail often enough that the appointment gets skipped, and skipped appointments have a way of becoming skipped years.

Why the delay costs more than the visit

Dentists see the consequences of postponed preventive care regularly. Gum disease develops slowly and without much discomfort in its early stages. Small areas of decay are generally easier to treat when they are caught early and can become more involved if they progress. Regular preventive visits may help identify problems before they become more extensive.

The parent avoiding one hour-long cleaning frequently ends up committing to several longer appointments later, at a point when the schedule has not gotten any easier.

What some practices are doing about it

A small number of practices have started treating childcare as part of the appointment rather than something the patient has to solve beforehand. That can mean a supervised play area staffed during treatment hours, family block scheduling so parents and children are seen back to back, or early morning and evening availability that does not require taking time off work.

Dr. Hill’s Family Dental, a general and family practice in Orion Township, Michigan, offers supervised on-site childcare during appointments. Parents should confirm current availability, hours, and any age or scheduling requirements directly with the practice when booking.

What to ask when choosing a practice

Parents who have been putting off care are worth asking a few direct questions before booking:

• Is there supervised childcare on site, and during which hours?
• Can the whole family be seen in the same visit?
• Are there appointments outside standard work hours?
• How far out is the next available cleaning?

The answers vary widely between practices, and most people never think to ask. For a parent who has spent years finding reasons to reschedule, one of those answers may remove the only obstacle that was ever really in the way.