Special Needs Dentistry

Compassionate Care

Our office is highly qualified in treating exceptional children for everything from regular cleanings to filling cavities.

Caring for children means caring for all children.

At KidZdent, our doctors and team have all undergone additional training as a compliment to our expertise in pediatric dentistry to ensure that we can comfortably and effectively treat children with special needs throughout Old Bridge, East Brunswick, Sayreville and all of New Jersey. While our core goal as pediatric dentists is to ensure that each child in our office receives the best dental care possible, exceptional children often require a more sensitive approach and additional care to ensure that special needs children do not encounter dental health problems later in life.

A Dental Practice for Everyone

As an international speaker for special needs dentistry and with a background in education, Dr. Brunsden leads our office in delivering gentle pediatric dental care for patients with special needs. Parents and caregivers can enjoy the peace of mind that their child is receiving the best care possible. Our entire Old Bridge team has undergone training to ensure that special needs dentistry patients receive the care they need, whether they exhibit mild, moderate, or severe conditions. Our office is highly qualified in treating exceptional children for everything from regular cleanings to filling cavities.

The Dental Dilemma

Autism presents a unique challenge for healthcare professionals. Our team has gone through rigorous training to be looked at as a trusted provider for autism dentistry. Children with autism require and deserve all of the dental services provided to the typical child, but are often neglected because:

They are often orally sensitive making at-home dental care difficult and often impossible
Parents avoid the dentist due to preconceived fears about difficulties associated with routine visits
Autistic children have oral habits such as chewing and biting which can negatively affect dentition
Correction of a poor bite is perceived as next to impossible
Frequent trauma from accidents injures the front teeth of autistic children
Behavioral management is often rewarded with decay-creating sugary snacks
Poor eating habits as well as pacification eating and drinking of sugary foods

Equal Care for All

KidZdent believes that everyone should have access and receive specialty custom care when it comes to their dental visit. By definition, patients who are special needs are those who due to physical, medical, developmental or cognitive conditions require special consideration when receiving dental treatment. This can include individuals with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Down syndrome, spinal cord injuries and countless other conditions or injuries that can make standard dental procedures more challenging. KidZdent also treats young children and adolescents who have Behavior Management concerns such as ADD, ADHD, OCD as well as issues like Bi-polar Disorder. It is often difficult for these patients to sit still in a dentist’s chair, therefore sedation dentistry is offered as a good solution to enable proper dental treatment if applicable. A significant part of our practice involves treating patients with special needs.

The professionals at KidZdent lead with compassion and understanding when it comes to the care for special needs patients. We encourage our patients to discuss their potential options with our front desk and clinical team members prior so we may accommodate each special needs patient appropriately and focus on meeting their needs while working with any limitations.

KidZdent will spend any extra or necessary time with patients of special needs, establishing trust and relationships built on sensitivity and credibility. Every family will be greeted by a calm, sensory-friendly environment that caters to all dental and orthodontic needs for all ages.

Serving patients with special needs requires our staff to have increased awareness and attention during all dental procedures and regular dental hygiene check-ups/scheduled visits.

If you have any questions regarding treatment or preventative care, please call 732-679-2323 to contact us for more information

Comfort through Education and Understanding

One of the primary ways in which our Old Bridge special needs dental practice strives to make children with special needs comfortable is by helping to set their expectations. We invite the parents of our patients with special needs to walk through our special needs dentistry Social Story available on our website. This guide will not only let your child know what to expect, but can be printed out as well, allowing your child to go over the steps of their appointments by themselves.

KidZdent also encourages desensitization visits for your children, helping them acclimate to social interaction with their dentist at their own pace. This visit acts as a dry run for their eventual dental appointment, helping make your child feel comfortable with our office and better understand what to expect when they visit. Our special needs dental office is also available to help parents in finding ways to keep their children’s teeth clean between visits, even offering tips on our YouTube channel.

Options for Sedation

While many of our efforts to cater to your exceptional child’s needs are based on “gradual desensitization,” our office also provides a range of behavioral management solutions designed for each child’s special health care needs, ranging from Applied Behavioral Analysis concepts of training and development, to a series of sedation options.

Our Old Bridge special needs dentists provide nitrous oxide, in-office oral sedation, as well as intra-venous sedation provided by our anesthesiologist, where indicated.