Caring for Your Child's Smile
Gentle, compassionate care for your little one.
A positive first experience at the dentist can lead to a lifetime of healthy smiles. At Northwoods Family Dental, our goal is to be your child’s dental home, providing compassionate care from infancy through their teenage years. We offer a full range of pediatric services, from preventative sealants to specialized treatments like tongue tie correction.
Our unique, child-friendly approach uses advanced Solea laser technology for anesthetic-free fillings and incorporates our gentle therapy dogs, Charlie and Meg, to create a calm, welcoming, and positive environment for your little one to thrive.
Fluoride Varnish
Strengthening Your Child’s Young Teeth
Fluoride varnish is a safe and highly effective preventative treatment that plays a key role in keeping your child’s smile healthy. It is a concentrated fluoride paste that is quickly and easily painted on the teeth, where it works to strengthen enamel and make it more resistant to cavity causing acids and bacteria.
This professional-strength application provides a powerful defensive boost that is especially important for protecting the developing teeth of infants and children. It’s a simple, painless step we can take to give your child a significant advantage in preventing future tooth decay.
Dental Sealants
A Protective Barrier Against Decay
The deep grooves on the chewing surfaces of your child’s back teeth are a prime location for cavities to form. Dental sealants offer a simple and powerful solution by creating a protective shield over these vulnerable areas. A sealant is a thin, tooth-colored coating that is painted into the grooves of the molars. It hardens to create a smooth surface that seals out food particles and bacteria, effectively preventing decay from starting. The application process is quick, painless, and provides years of valuable protection for your child’s smile.
Silver Diamine Fluoride
Stopping Tooth Decay in Its Tracks
Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is a remarkable noninvasive treatment used to stop a cavity from growing. SDF is a liquid medication that is simply brushed onto a decayed area of a tooth. It works by killing the bacteria causing the cavity and hardening the tooth structure to prevent the decay from progressing.
This quick and painless approach is an excellent alternative to a traditional filling, making it ideal for managing cavities in very young children, anxious patients, or on teeth that will eventually be replaced by their permanent successors.
Pulp Therapy
Saving Your Child’s Natural Tooth
When a cavity in a baby tooth becomes very deep and reaches the inner nerve (pulp), pulp therapy may be needed to save the tooth. This procedure, sometimes called a baby root canal treatment, involves removing the infected part of the pulp to eliminate infection and pain. Saving the baby tooth is extremely important, as it acts as a natural placeholder in the jaw, ensuring there is enough space for the future permanent tooth to erupt correctly. Pulp therapy allows us to preserve this important function.
Crowns
Protecting and Restoring Baby Teeth
When a baby tooth has a very large cavity or is broken, a dental crown is often the best way to restore it. A crown covers the entire tooth, providing the strength and protection it needs to continue functioning properly until it is ready to fall out naturally. Depending on the location of the tooth and the specific needs of your child, we offer several types of crowns, including traditional stainless steel, tooth-colored zirconia, and resin. This allows us to choose the best option for a durable, functional result.
Obturators
Custom Prosthetics for Special Needs
For some infants and children with specific needs, an obturator is a crucial part of their care. An obturator is a custom-made prosthetic device that is expertly designed to act as a barrier, separating the oral cavity from the nasal cavity or sinuses. This highly specialized appliance can assist with essential functions, such as feeding and breathing, and it plays a vital role in guiding the healthy development of the mouth and palate for children with certain congenital conditions.
Tongue Tie Correction
Improving Comfort and Function
A tongue tie, or ankyloglossia, is a condition where the thin band of tissue connecting the tongue to the floor of the mouth is unusually short, restricting the tongue's range of motion. This can interfere with an infant's ability to breastfeed effectively and may impact speech and eating later on. We provide gentle and precise tongue tie correction in our office to release this tissue, improving function and comfort for your child. This simple procedure can have a significant positive impact on your child’s development.
Other Services
Convenient and Simple Payment Options
We believe that managing the financial aspects of your care should be as simple and stress-free as possible. Our office provides several convenient payment options to suit your needs. We accept all major credit cards and CareCredit financing to help you fit your treatment into your budget.
For patients with dental coverage, we will gladly bill your insurance provider to ensure you receive your maximum benefits. We also offer an in-house dental membership plan, which is an excellent option for patients without insurance.
Northwoods Family Dental rocks! My son is very hard to handle in certain situations because of his over stimulation issues, but the staff was amazing and walked him through everything. He stayed calm the entire visit, which astonished me. He even got to play with their cute little puppy Charlie. 😊
ALY H.