1001 Medical Plaza Dr | #350 | Spring | TX | 77380

Pediatric Sedation Dentistry in Spring, TX

Helping Woodlands’ Smallest Smiles Relax

Here at Growing Great Grins, our philosophy of conservative dentistry extends to our approach to sedation. We will not sedate your child to make our job easier– we sedate your child only to prevent trauma and make sure each experience with us is pleasant.

Here’s how we decide what to do: At your child’s treatment-planning visit, Dr. Blackburn will carefully evaluate your child; play, talk, and interact to build a rapport with them; and do some exercises to get a deeper sense of their personality and their ability to work with the team.

Then she will talk to you, the parent or guardian, to build an understanding of how your child responds to potentially stressful situations – like getting a haircut, going to the doctor, getting immunizations, and so forth.

After all of this information gathering, we’ll present the options we think will give your child the best chance to have a positive – and even fun – experience in the operatory, and let your family choose the options that make the most sense to you.

Safety You Can Count On

Both Dr. Leslie and Dr. Judith have trained extensively to be able to offer soothing sedation to kids or special needs patients who need a little – or a lot – of help to be able to enjoy their dental experience. They attended top residencies in Pediatric Dentistry (Yale University and Baylor University).

But even with this outstanding training and extensive experience with sedating children on a daily basis, we never take sedation lightly and think of each sedation as a unique situation. We understand what a big decision it is to trust your child to our team for a sedation, and we strive to be constantly worthy of that trust.

In fact, we take safety so seriously, we close the office every other year in order to attend pediatric sedation CE courses. These courses allow our doctors to refresh their knowledge, hear the latest techniques and research regarding sedation, and get new ideas for improving office procedures and protocols. In addition, key members of our sedation team also attend review courses to make sure the whole team is current and cutting edge.

To top it all off, Growing Great Grins has a codified emergency management protocol which we review as a team with quarterly emergency preparedness simulations and drills.

Sure, dental sedation is used safely all the time for both little ones and adults – and has been for decades – but we want to be absolutely, and positively, sure that everything goes smoothly. After all, that’s what sedation dentistry was designed for!

Your Sedation Options

GIGGLY GAS: NITROUS OXIDE

Let the silliness ensue! Giggly gas, more commonly known as laughing gas or nitrous oxide, offers the most minimal level of sedation. It works extremely well for the majority of our patients and is the best choice for more mature, cooperative patients who are a little anxious. It can also help ease discomfort, decrease the natural gag reflex, and allow kids to have a lot of fun!

OUR SPECIAL JUICE: ORAL SEDATION

Oral dental sedation is the next level of pediatric sedation and offers minimal-to-moderate relaxation levels. Your child will not be asleep, just more relaxed with an increased attention span. Since your child will not be sleeping, we still bring out our whole fun dog-and-pony show to help them have a great experience. This level of sedation is perfect for the anxious child who really wants to cooperate but can’t quite sit still or feel at ease enough to let us get the necessary work done.

The special juice Growing Great Grins uses for oral sedation is a bit different from the agent other pediatric dentists typically use. We have found that it offers safer, deeper, more effective relaxation, and are pleased to offer it to kiddos who really need it, but we do not offer it to children under the age of 3 or anyone with health challenges. To hear more about this sedation option please feel free to call and ask to talk to the doctors. They may not be able to come to the phone, but they would be happy to call you back to discuss it more in depth.

SLEEP DENTISTRY: IV SEDATION

For kiddos who are either too young or too anxious for oral sedation, yet need more help than nitrous oxide can offer, we offer IV sedation. IV sedation is a great option for kids who need a lot of work done because we can complete any and all treatment your child needs in that one visit. To make this a safe and effective experience, we bring a dental anesthesiologist – the preeminent dental anesthesiologists in Houston! – to administer and monitor every IV sedation procedure. We trust him to sedate our own children: could there be a higher recommendation?

HOSPITAL DENTISTRY

Growing Great Grins is proud to partner with Texas Children’s Hospital to offer hospital dentistry to those whose tender age, health, special needs, or behavioral challenges make in-office treatment impossible. In this procedure, your child will be put under general anesthesia in the care of a full hospital anesthesia team. Once your child is asleep in an operating room, our team is on hand to complete any and all necessary dental treatments. While this option is our last resort, it can definitely be a smile saver for kids we can’t work on in any other way.

Would you like to learn more about
our pediatric dental sedation options,

Call us today!