Autism Dental Center

• Eye contact: If the dentist can get your child to respond to the request “look at me”, it is a good indication that your child will eventually succeed. “Look at me” commands help your child pay attention, and helps establish a relationship between your child and the dentist.
• Educational Modeling: This is a way our dental staff will train your child to assume certain safe positions. The dentist may give instructions such as “feet out straight, hands on your tummy” repeatedly. This is done until your child automatically assumes these positions when he or she is seated in the chair. No other position is acceptable. This is called “educational modeling”. The patient “models” the behavior, and then adopts that as a habit on future visits. Children with autism usually need a lot of repetition.

• Modulated Praise: This is a technique that encourages good behavior and doesn’t call attention to negative behavior.
• Counting Framework: Once the patient with autism has learned a particular request, for example to allow a mirror to be placed in the mouth, then your child’s dentist will ask him to hold that position to a count of ten. Your child is thus trained to hold still for successively longer periods of time, so that eventually he will sit long enough for routine dental treatment to be safely delivered.

These techniques do not work for everyone.  Some children have not responded fully to our program. Often, these are children with more involved disorders or lower cognitive abilities. The key is not to presuppose an individual’s capabilities: patients will often surprise even those closest to them.  It is amazing what a child with autism can accomplish when someone takes the time to work with him at his pace.

Parent/caregiver involvement is the key. It is critical that you are involved and committed to this process. You need to help reinforce the skills at home and help guide the dental team as to what is working and not working.

Start young. Don’t avoid dental visits for your child. It is never too early.  The first dental visit is recommended for all children by their first birthday.  This is especially important since most children with autism are at high-risk for getting cavities.

Don’t delay dental visits. Waiting will only let smaller problems become larger ones, including pain and infection. Waiting greatly reduces the probability of successfully treating your child in a normal dental office environment.