Our care
Pediatric dental services
Little Roots is a pediatric specialty practice, which means everything here is built for children: infants through teens, including children with special healthcare needs.
Preventive care
The work that keeps small problems small: routine visits, protection for the teeth most likely to decay, and habits that fit into family life.
- Overview
Preventive Dentistry
A collection of reasonable, essential, and evidence-based clinical interventions designed to promote optimal oral health, growth, and development while stopping oral disease before it starts. — American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
Comprehensive Oral Examinations
Regular dental examinations help us understand your child’s oral health and how it changes as they grow. We evaluate the teeth, gums, bite, oral tissues, and growth and development while looking for early signs of cavities or other concerns.
Dental Cleaning
Professional dental cleanings help remove plaque and buildup from your child’s teeth while giving us another opportunity to evaluate their oral hygiene and identify areas that may need a little extra attention at home.
Fluoride Treatments
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that helps strengthen tooth enamel and make teeth more resistant to cavities. Professional fluoride treatments can provide additional protection during periods when your child may be at greater risk for tooth decay.
Silver Diamine Fluoride
Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is a liquid that can be applied directly to certain cavities to help slow or stop their progression. Application is quick and does not require drilling or numbing, making it a useful minimally invasive option for some children.
Curodont
Curodont is a non-invasive treatment designed to support the natural repair of early-stage cavities before a traditional filling is needed. It is applied directly to an early cavity and works with minerals in the saliva to support remineralization of the tooth.
Sealants
The deep grooves on the chewing surfaces of back teeth can be difficult for toothbrush bristles to reach, making them common places for cavities to develop. Sealants are thin, protective coatings placed over these grooves to help keep food and cavity-causing bacteria out.
Mouth Guards
Sports and active play are an important part of childhood, but they can also put teeth at risk for injury. A properly fitting mouth guard helps cushion and protect the teeth, lips, cheeks, and surrounding structures during activities where dental injuries may occur.
Individualized care
Care shaped around the child in the chair, including children with special healthcare needs and children who find the dentist hard.
- Overview
Individualized Care
Providing a safe and customized oral health environment, with preventive care tailored to each child’s individual caries-risk and periodontal disease-risk assessment rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Happy Visits
Sometimes the most important part of a dental visit is simply getting comfortable. Happy Visits give children an opportunity to become familiar with our office, meet our team, explore the dental environment, and build trust without the pressure of completing treatment.
First Dental Visits
Your child’s first dental visit is the beginning of a relationship with their oral health. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends a child’s first dental visit when their first tooth appears or no later than their first birthday, with a Dental Home established by 12 months of age.
Dental Home
A Dental Home is an ongoing relationship between your child, family, and dental team where care is accessible, comprehensive, coordinated, and centered around your child’s individual needs.
Caries-Risk Assessment
Every child has a different risk for developing cavities, and that risk can change as they grow. A caries (cavity) risk assessment helps us understand the factors that may increase or decrease your child’s individual risk.
Special Health Care Needs
Every child deserves dental care that recognizes and respects their individual needs. Children with special health care needs may benefit from adjustments to the environment, communication, appointment length, positioning, sensory experiences, or the way care is introduced.
Behavior Guidance
Behavior guidance is how we help children understand, cope with, and build confidence during dental care. There is no single approach that works for every child.
Dental Anxiety & Fear
Feeling nervous about the dentist is common, and every child expresses anxiety differently. Some children tell us they are worried, while others may become quiet, hesitant, tearful, or have difficulty participating in care.
Sensory-Friendly Care
The sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and sensations of a dental office can feel different for every child. For children with sensory sensitivities, small changes can make a meaningful difference in their experience.
Anticipatory Guidance & Counseling
Children’s oral health needs change quickly as they grow. Anticipatory guidance means talking about what comes next so families have the information they need before a new stage or challenge arrives.
Growth & Development
A child’s mouth is constantly changing. Baby teeth erupt and fall out, permanent teeth arrive, jaws grow, and the bite develops throughout childhood and adolescence.
Diet & Oral Health
What children eat and drink — and how often — can have an important impact on their oral health. Rather than focusing on a list of “good” and “bad” foods, we look at your child’s overall eating and drinking patterns.
Restorative care
When a tooth needs repair, choosing the option that keeps the most healthy tooth structure while reliably solving the problem.
- Overview
Restorative Dentistry
Repairing teeth affected by cavities, injury, or other damage to restore their health, function, and comfort while preserving healthy tooth structure whenever possible.
Minimally Invasive Dentistry
At Little Roots, we believe in preserving as much healthy tooth structure as possible. Minimally invasive dentistry uses thoughtful techniques to prevent, slow, or treat cavities while reducing the amount of tooth structure that needs to be removed whenever appropriate.
Tooth-Colored Fillings
Tooth-colored fillings are used to repair teeth with small to moderate cavities or areas of damage while preserving as much healthy tooth structure as possible. The filling material is matched to the natural color of the tooth, helping the restoration blend into your child’s smile.
Pediatric Dental Crowns
When a tooth has a large cavity or has lost too much tooth structure to support a filling, a crown can help protect and restore it. Tooth structure can also be lost from injury, wear, or other causes even when no cavity is present. Crowns may also be recommended for children at higher risk for developing cavities because they provide strong, predictable protection for the remaining tooth.
Pulp Therapy
Inside every tooth is the pulp, the soft tissue containing nerves and blood vessels. When a cavity or injury reaches this inner portion of the tooth, pulpal treatment may be needed to remove affected tissue, relieve discomfort, and help preserve the tooth.
Interim Therapeutic Restorations
An Interim Therapeutic Restoration (ITR) is a temporary filling that can be used to protect a tooth and slow the progression of a cavity until more definitive treatment can be completed.
Chipped & Broken Teeth
Chipped and broken teeth can happen from falls, sports, biting something hard, or other everyday accidents. Treatment depends on whether the tooth is a baby or permanent tooth, the extent of the damage, and whether the inner portion of the tooth has been affected.
Dental Injuries
Dental injuries can happen quickly from falls, sports, play, or other unexpected accidents. An injury may affect the teeth, gums, lips, or surrounding tissues, and prompt evaluation can help determine the best next step.
Space Maintainers
Baby teeth help hold space for the permanent teeth growing underneath. When a baby tooth is lost earlier than expected because of a cavity, injury, or another reason, neighboring teeth may begin to shift into the open space.
Dental Extractions
Our goal is to preserve your child’s natural teeth whenever possible, but sometimes removing a tooth is the healthiest option. An extraction may be recommended for a tooth that cannot be predictably restored, has an infection, has been significantly damaged by injury, or needs to be removed to support healthy growth and development.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide, sometimes called “laughing gas,” is a safe and gentle option that can help children feel more relaxed and comfortable during dental treatment. It is breathed through a small mask placed over the nose while your child remains awake and able to communicate with our team.
Urgent care
Chipped, broken, and knocked-out teeth, toothaches, swelling, and dental injuries.
- Overview
Emergency Dental Treatment
The management of conditions that require immediate attention to relieve severe pain and/or risk of infection and to alleviate the burden on hospital emergency departments. — American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
Tooth Pain
Tooth pain can have many causes, including cavities, infection, injury, erupting teeth, or irritation of the gums. Because children may have difficulty describing exactly what they are feeling, an evaluation can help us identify the source of the discomfort.
Dental Abscesses
A dental abscess is an infection that can develop when bacteria reach the inside of a tooth or surrounding tissues. Children may experience tooth pain, tenderness, localized swelling, a bump on the gums, or sometimes no discomfort at all.
Facial Swelling
Facial swelling associated with a tooth can be a sign that a dental infection has spread beyond the tooth and should be evaluated promptly.
Broken or Chipped Back Teeth
Back teeth can break or chip because of cavities, injury, or biting something hard. Even when a broken tooth is not painful, it is important to have it evaluated to determine how much tooth structure has been affected.
Dental Trauma & Injuries
Falls, sports, play, and other unexpected accidents can injure baby or permanent teeth. Teeth may become chipped, fractured, loose, displaced, or completely knocked out, and the appropriate treatment depends on the type of injury and the tooth involved.
Lip, Tongue & Gum Injuries
Injuries to the lips, tongue, and gums are common during childhood and can sometimes look more alarming because tissues in the mouth can bleed quite a bit.
Lost or Broken Fillings & Crowns
Fillings and crowns can occasionally become loose, break, or come off. Your child may not have any discomfort, but the tooth underneath can be more vulnerable to sensitivity, additional damage, or food and bacteria collecting in the area.
After-Hours Dental Concerns
Dental concerns do not always happen during office hours. If your child develops significant tooth pain, swelling, dental trauma, or another urgent concern when Little Roots is closed, our after-hours guidance will help you determine the appropriate next step.
Airway & oral function
How your child breathes, and how the lips, tongue, and soft tissues of the mouth work together, as part of their dental care.
- Overview
Airway & Oral Function
An individualized approach to evaluating and supporting how a child breathes, sleeps, swallows, and uses the muscles of the mouth and face, with attention to how oral structures and function may relate to oral health, growth, development, and overall well-being.
Airway & Soft Tissue Screening
At Little Roots, we look beyond the teeth. As part of your child’s routine dental visits, we screen the mouth and surrounding structures for signs that may relate to breathing, sleep, oral function, growth, and development.
Airway & Oral Function Evaluation
When a routine screening, your child’s history, or something you’ve noticed at home raises a concern, we may recommend a more comprehensive airway and oral function evaluation.
Mouth Breathing
Children may breathe through their mouth occasionally, especially when they are congested. When mouth breathing becomes a regular pattern, however, it may be worth taking a closer look.
Myofunctional Therapy
Myofunctional therapy uses individualized exercises and strategies to support healthy function of the tongue, lips, and muscles of the mouth and face.
Oral Habits
Oral habits are a normal part of childhood, especially during infancy and the early years. As children grow, however, persistent habits can sometimes influence the position of the teeth, shape of the mouth, bite, and oral function.
