Dakota Kids Dentistry takes pride and joy in providing dental care for children of all ages from newborns to teenagers. With their two doctors on staff both trained as pediatric dentists, they work to provide the best care they can since the day they opened in 2001.

Pediatric dentists takes an extra two to three years of specialized training after regular training to know how to ideally care for children’s dental health. They have more fine-tuned knowledge about what is good for children and what should be done. According to Reeann Magandy, who works for the dental office, this includes having the authority to put a child under anesthesia to get a variety of dental work done all at once instead of having to have the child come back for a variety of visits that could lead to a life-long dislike of dentists.

Dakota Kids Dentistry’s site is full of helpful information for kids’ dental care. They cover simple starting care from infancy to when a child is old enough to do it themselves. Care of the primary teeth, even though they will fall out to give way to the permanent teeth, is extremely important for overall life long dental health.

“One thing people don’t always realize is that some kids won’t lose their back primary molars until they’re almost 11 or 12. If those teeth are infected, it can lead to decay and infection in the permanent teeth as well as spread to the jaw and cause more problems. The infection can also spread to blood and cause body-wide harm,” said Magandy.

Photos by Shyanne Belzer/MDN Dakota Kids Dentistry and Kemmet Dental Design both pride themselves in their individualized work.

Starting good dental care even as infants can help. They recommend starting at birth by taking a soft cloth with water and gently cleaning the gums so that the sugars of both breast milk and formula don’t cause any harm. Once the teeth begin forming, it is time to begin using a soft bristled brush. If the child is under 2, they recommend just a smear of toothpaste. Once they are 2 to 5, just a pea-sized drop.

Parents should assist the child until they are old enough to “do a good job” of the brushing themselves. Flossing should begin as soon as two teeth touch to avoid cavities from forming.

Just like with any other health area, a good diet is very important to having healthy, good teeth. One thing that Dakota Kids Dentistry and other dentists says to avoid is sugar.

For kids, it is recommended that parents avoid putting them to bed or down for a nap with a bottle or sippy cup full of milk of any type, formula, juice, or any other sugary beverage to avoid unnecessary tooth decay caused by sugar. They recommend that if you must, fill the bottle or sippy cup with water.

They recommend the same for if a child has a sippy cup throughout the entire day. Milk at meals is okay, but constant sipping on milk, juice and other sugary beverages can cause harm to the forming teeth.

Besides sugar, they have other recommendations for how to help your children have a healthier smile. Kids like to automatically suck a pacifier, their thumb, or other fingers, which isn’t too bad when they are infants, but if they continue past when teeth are formed, it can create problems. The sucking can create tooth alignment problems and problems with the growth of the mouth.

According to not only Dakota Kids Dentistry but also American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, it’s good to start taking your child to the dentist as early as their first birthday. While major cleanings won’t start, it is good to ensure everything is forming correctly and moving along nicely.

Kemmet Dental Design prides themselves with making sure that they have the best cutting edge technology to offer the best for their patients. They have a variety of interesting technology such as 3D x-rays, x-rays that use less radiation, a Solea laser, and everything is 100% digital.

“We pride ourselves on staying up to date with the latest tech because it helps us give more accurate diagnoses,” said Keisha Kemmet, who is the office manager and dental assistant at the office.

The Solea laser that they use is a less painful way to handle cavities or decay without using anesthetic. As a carbon dioxide laser, it vaporizes the necessary tooth enamel and makes fixing the area much smoother and less painful.

Along with this laser they have the ability to do crowns on the same day they are noticed to be needed and they can do CAT scans for even better ability to diagnose.

For Kemmet Dental Design, customer satisfaction and dental health are extremely important motivators for them to keep up on the latest technology the dental world has to offer.

Dakota Kids Dentistry is currently open Monday through Wednesday at 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday at 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The hours do change after May for their May to September times. They are located at 2615 Elk Drive #1.