Kids & Teens
Specialist Dentistry
We perform the entire range of dental treatment required to give your young one the healthiest, most perfect smile.
Prevention
- Establishing a Dental Home for Your Child
- Encouraging a Positive Dental Attitude
- Introducing Good Oral Health Habits
- Preventive Diet Counselling
- Caries Risk Assessment
Maintenance
- Regular Dental Reviews
- Dental Cleaning (Prophylaxis)
- Fluoride Therapy
- Fissure Sealants
Restoration
- Tooth-coloured Fillings
- Paediatric and Adolescent Tooth Crowns
- Children and Teen Root Canal Treatment
- Dental Trauma Management
- Adolescent Dental Aesthetics
Trauma
- Emergency Dental Care & Triage
- Management of Avulsed (Knocked-Out) Teeth
- Repair of Chipped, Cracked & Fractured Teeth
- Treatment for Soft Tissue & Lip Injuries
- Long-Term Monitoring of Injured Teeth
Intervention
- Early Jaw Alignment Therapy
- Braces and Clear Aligners (Invisalign)
- Habit Breakers and Space Maintainers
- Extra Teeth and Wisdom Teeth Surgery
- Swellings and Tooth Grinding Treatment
Sedation
- Computer Aided Gentle Injections
- Nitrous Oxide Sedation (Happy Gas)
- Intravenous Sedation
- General Anaesthesia in Hospital or Day Surgery
- Hospital Ward Dentistry
Dental Care For All Ages
Children at different ages will face different dental needs.
Find out more about the dental care needed for each age!
0 – 6 years: Early Childhood
- Establishing a Dental Home: Even as young as age 1, good dental habits, prevention advice and diet counselling is paramount to lay the foundation for lifelong oral health. Early childhood caries or baby-bottle decay affects children as young as 1 year of age, is extremely common, potentially devastating and can be prevented.
- Setting The Tone: Dental visits are stressful and frightening even for adults. Children are not small adults. They require a specific set of behavioural techniques to enable them to cope with fearful, stressful and potentially painful dental procedures. Our paediatric dental specialists have in-depth training in the field of child psychology to help children achieve a positive dental experience no matter the diagnosis.
- Appropriate Treatment: We provide the full range of dental services to restore tiny smiles. More importantly, we understand that in young children of varying age and temperaments, there is a time and place for non-invasive and gentle alternatives, no matter the severity of the condition.
- Advanced Pharmacological Management: Once in awhile, the extent and severity of the child’s dental condition requires sedation or general anaesthesia for treatment to be effectively and safely delivered. Our pedodontists are fully accredited to administer inhalation sedation (nitrous oxide) in the clinic, or to use the day surgery theatres or medical theatres located within the Parkway Hospitals such as Mount Elizabeth Orchard and Gleneagles.
7 – 12 years: Late Childhood
- Building Upon the Foundation: Congratulations, your child has grown their first adult tooth! This signifies the change into the mixed dentition. More than ever, good oral habits and caries prevention pave the way to healthy and strong adult teeth. Targeted preventive procedures such as fissure sealants of new adult molars form the bedrock of these prevention pillars.
- Future Screening: Extra teeth show up in about 2% of all children, more common than we think. Very often they grow between the central incisors. At best, they cause no issues but at worst they can prevent the proper eruption and alignment of teeth. The American Orthodontic Association recommends that all children undergo an X-ray screening by age 7. Here at Child Smile we do not routinely screen every child with an X-ray, but prefer to maintain vigilant reviews at this age to rule out any such possibilities.
- Accidental and Trauma Management: With late childhood comes what is known in psychology as the age of increased participation – your child is finding their place in the world socially by broadening their activities. Along with this come the potential for accidents which can damage their new adult teeth. Our pedodontists are on hand to deal with any traumatic injuries in a timely manner. After office hours, they provide on-call services to the A&E departments of the Parkway Hospitals such as Mount Elizabeth Orchard and Parkway East.
- Guiding Smiles: More than ever, a growing field of evidence is recognising the importance of early interceptive orthodontics, especially in the field of jaw growth modification. This is even more so with habits such as thumb-sucking. The key is growth: a powerful force that our specialists can use to guide developing teeth and bone into better positions, so as to mitigate or even prevent orthodontic treatment later on. This is usually carried out before all the baby or primary teeth have completely changed to adult teeth. The advent of Invisalign clear aligners has become a game-changer in terms of comfort and efficacy during early orthodontic intervention.
12 – 21 years: Adolescence and Young Adulthood
- Reinforcing Habits: Every parent knows adolescence comes with its own set of unique challenges. This is the time when your teen begins to fully explore the boundaries of their identities, and may sometimes pick up habits that may be detrimental to their new set of adult teeth. Destructive sugary or gassy drinks, tooth grinding or chewing, not brushing regularly are some common issues. Now more than ever, the dentist’s role in habit correction and reinforcement will help shape your child’s lifelong dental health.
- Sound Orthodontic Treatment: Every teen knows that this is the age where they can get their teeth properly straightened. Either with Invisalign clear aligners or traditional straight wire appliances, our dentist has the solution to give your teen the smile that will set them up for life, with an emphasis where possible on non-extractions. Child Smile Dental is an Invisalign Platinum Elite Accredited Clinic, and has been delivering consistent and beautiful results with this system for years.
- Early Adult Aesthetics: Teeth discolouration has many causes, other than staining by tea and coffee. Sometimes discolouration can be internal, involving the disruption of enamel or dentine formation during growth. Often times discolouration or cracked and damaged teeth are related to a previous history of dental trauma from an accident. Early adult aesthetics is contingent upon careful diagnosis and conservative treatment to preserve as much natural tooth structure as possible. Congenitally extra or missing teeth are extremely common, and need to be properly planned for to ensure future aesthetic and functional outcomes.
- There’s Never Too Much Wisdom: Wisdom teeth are extremely common, but not all need to be removed. If they start to cause pain, are impacted in a way that allows food to get stuck between them, or if orthodontic treatment has been done previously, a thorough risk evaluation should be performed to ascertain the benefits of their removal. Our specialist oral surgeon is on hand to ensure the process is as painless, smooth and skilful as possible.
Sedation and General Anaesthesia Is Safe In the Right Setting
Four year-old Jayden has twelve large cavities. Seventeen year-old Haziqah has painfully impacted wisdom teeth. Sometimes, young people face dental conditions that make coping with treatment difficult.
In these situations, age, anxiety and the severity of the disease or condition may mean that chair side dental treatment becomes extremely challenging, or even impossible.
Conscious sedation is a medical modality that allows such treatment to be safely performed in the dental clinic. Nitrous Oxide sedation, or happy gas, is the mildest form of sedation. Our kids dental specialists perform this procedure routinely.
For older patients, IV (intravenous) sedation works more reliably, and this is administered by an anaesthetist who visits the clinic and stays until the dental treatment is completed.
For certain cases especially in younger children, general anaesthesia has to be performed. This is done either in a day surgery facility or a private hospital. When carried out by our paediatric dentists and their team of anaesthetists and nurses in the right setting, general anaesthesia is extremely safe, reliable, effective and has been shown to have no long-term effects.
Early Interceptive Orthodontic Treatment is a Game Changer
Overbite. Underbite. Crooked teeth. These are some of the terms we know about dental alignment. What may not be so obvious is that the causes of such problems may not necessarily be due to the teeth, but the way how your child’s jaws are growing.
Our paediatric dental specialists are trained to assess such malocclusions and prescribe the most suitable intervention at the most appropriate timing during your child’s growth.
Be it partial wire braces, removable retainers, or Invisalign clear aligners, early orthodontic intervention is a game-changer. It is powerful, safe, easy and can mitigate or even potentially negate the need for painful and long dental alignment treatment later on.
Wisdom Teeth Are No Joke
Impacted wisdom teeth are found in almost a third of the population. If they are partially erupted they can cause pain, inflammation, food trap and even decay to the molar in front of them. Studies suggest their presence affects lower jaw crowding of teeth, especially if orthodontic treatment has been carried out. Thus, their removal is often indicated. To minimize pain, swelling and nerve damage from the surgery, a skilled yet gentle oral surgeon is often the best professional to carry this out. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!
A word on special needs
We recognise that some children may have needs that go beyond the scope of normal kids dentistry. Our pedodontists devote a large extent of their training working with children with special medical needs or neurodivergence, such as autism. To facilitate this, we partner with referring doctors or auxiliary healthcare professionals in relevant fields such as occupational therapy, psychiatry, paediatrics, and oncology.
There is no condition too complex that sound planning, communication and proper treatment siting cannot manage. Every child, no matter the condition, deserves the highest standard of safe and effective dental treatment.
Choosing the Right Treatment for Your Child
Every child is different, so treatment planning is individualised.
We consider:
- Your child’s age
- Dental development
- Oral health
- Medical history
- Previous dental experiences
- Anxiety and behaviour
- Extent of dental disease
- Treatment complexity
- Long-term dental development
- Your family’s concerns and preferences
We will explain the diagnosis, available treatment options, expected benefits, potential risks and alternatives so that you can make an informed decision about your child’s care.
Sometimes, but not always.
The number and length of appointments depend on the complexity of treatment, your child’s age and cooperation, the number of teeth involved and whether sedation or general anaesthesia is required.
For some children, several shorter appointments are preferable. For others, particularly those requiring extensive treatment, a different approach may be more appropriate.
Our priority is to provide safe, effective treatment while maintaining a positive experience for the child.
Yes.
Our approach covers the full spectrum of paediatric and adolescent dentistry, from prevention and routine maintenance to restorative treatment, orthodontic intervention, dental trauma management and advanced anxiety and sedation services.
This allows us to monitor your child’s dental development over time and provide or coordinate appropriate care as their needs change.
Our Approach to Specialist Children's Dentistry
Children’s dentistry is about more than treating teeth.
A child’s teeth, jaws and facial structures are continuously developing, while their ability to understand, communicate and cope with dental treatment is also changing.
A specialist paediatric dental approach considers these factors together.
At Child Smile, our services are built around five key areas:
Prevention — establishing healthy habits and reducing the risk of dental disease.
Maintenance — monitoring oral health and protecting teeth through regular reviews and preventive treatments.
Restoration — repairing and preserving teeth affected by decay, trauma or developmental conditions.
Intervention — identifying and managing developing problems involving tooth eruption, jaw growth, habits and alignment.
Sedation and anxiety management — providing appropriate techniques to help children receive necessary dental care safely and comfortably.
Our goal is to help every child develop healthy teeth, a healthy smile and a positive relationship with dental care that lasts into adulthood.
A specialist assessment can be particularly helpful if your child has:
- Frequent or extensive tooth decay
- Dental anxiety or fear
- Previous difficult dental experiences
- Dental trauma
- Developmental abnormalities
- Delayed or abnormal tooth eruption
- Extra teeth
- Premature loss of baby teeth
- Jaw or bite concerns
- Persistent oral habits
- Tooth grinding
- Complex restorative needs
- Special healthcare needs
- A need for sedation or hospital-based dental treatment
- Concerns about the appearance of their teeth
However, you do not need to wait until your child develops a problem. Preventive specialist dental care can begin from an early age and continue throughout childhood and adolescence.