In the healthcare world, children see specially trained doctors, known as pediatricians, for diagnosis and treatment of a number of health problems. When it comes to dental care, children can visit a pediatric dentist for preventative dental care and diagnosis and treatment of dental problems.
A pediatric dentist is an individual who has gone through all the required schooling to become a general dentist. This means that the individual has received an undergraduate degree from an accredited four year college. After receiving an undergraduate degree, the individual went on to attend and graduate from an accredited dental school.
It is what happens after dental school that the differences between a general dentist and pediatric dentist happen. A general dentist will often go on to open their dental practice or form a partnership with other dentists. A pediatric dentist will go on to continue their education.
A pediatric dentist will continue their education by attending specialty courses. These specialty courses focus on providing the dentist with the skills and knowledge they need to treat children. These specialty continuing education courses can take anywhere from a year to three years to complete.
After attending these continuing education courses, the dentist is ready to practice. The pediatric dentist will have a choice of opening up their own practice that focuses on providing dental care to children or joining a partnership with an existing dentist.
There is a huge demand for pediatric dentists. There are a number of reasons why this demand is so high. The first reason is because of when a child should visit a pediatric dentist. The American Dental Association recommends that children visit a pediatric dentist when their first tooth appears and every six months after that. This means that there are a number of patients looking for pediatric dentists.
The second reason for the demand for dentists who practice pediatric dentistry is because they know how to work with children. Pediatric dentists attend a number of courses that teach them not only how to perform dental procedures, but how to interact and care for children.
Parents in the Scottsdale, Arizona area may want to click here to learn more about Feldhake & Associates. Feldhake & Associates doubles as a Pediatric Dentistry Scottsdale AZ clinic.
