Dependent on what type of appointment your child has scheduled is the primary deciding factor if he or she can eat/drink beforehand. If it is just an exam and consultation, your child can eat and drink small amounts to help prevent light-headedness and be more likely to relax, but have him or her brush and floss afterward to keep a clean mouth.
If the appointment is for dental treatment that will require sedation or general anesthesia to undergo the procedure comfortably and safely, solid food must stop eight hours beforehand. Clear liquids such as water or apple juice may be consumed up to two hours before the appointment, but no milk or other dairy drinks are to be ingested.
Why No Eating or Drinking?
It is for your child’s safety. It is dangerous for a child to be sedated if even a small amount of food or drink has started the digestive process and a release of those enzymes into the child’s stomach.
What About a Filling?
A filling uses the alloy amalgam that takes approximately 24 hours for the filling to harden completely. It is recommended to wait at least one hour to eat anything and to wait 24 hours before adding solid foods. There may be sensitivity to hot and cold beverages and food for as much as three weeks after a filling, especially if the cavity was deeper.
Should You Stay With Your Child?
Although you usually stay with your child during the initial examination and consultation, during future more involved appointments for procedures, it is suggested that you allow your child to accompany just the staff to establish a closer rapport with the child, gain the child’s confidence, and overcome any apprehension.
Creating a Happy Appointment
Our friendly and highly trained staff at Pediatric Dentistry of Suffolk County in Commack and Medford is happy to schedule a child’s appointments at the parents’ convenience with evening and Saturday office hours, if necessary.
The office team strives to make the child comfortable in a “fun” atmosphere, create a good attitude about coming for a regular health exam and preventative care, and to see each child leave with a smile. For more information about your child’s appointment, contact us today!
Ok. So finally I am giving in. Everyone, including my staff, my wife, my friends, even my kids is telling me to start writing a blog. Anyone who knows me well, knows that me and writing goes together exactly the same as me and talking – not a good match. Two things that just absolutely can’t coexist. But if there are several things that I am passionate
about and can definitely write about, they’re: health, nutrition, dentistry and sports. With that in mind, I started writing down some questions that our patients ask me and my hygienists on regular basis. Today I will start covering some of them. This question is actually the one that I ask my patients. I usually ask this before administering local anesthetic: “What did you have to eat before your visit today?” Unfortunately, the answers that we hear are not
the ones that we would hope for. It’s usually “nothing really”, “coffee and muffin” or “bowl of cereal”, “soup and sandwich”. You get the idea. We all love and crave some processed carbs like bread, cereal and pasta. Unfortunately, those are not the best choices when it comes to pre-dentist visit meal. We want your pre-local anesthetic meal to serve several purposes. I will cover some of them today and will address the others in my next blog. And for not having any meal at all before dental procedure that requires local anesthetic, I don’t know about you but I can’t go without some type of food for more than 3-4 hours. So, being hungry right after long dental visit, is just not a very good strategy to have.
That should do it for today. While you digest the information and try to make sense of it, I will continue adding to the list and will publish the remainder of it in the next blog. I will also address the nutritional strategies then.