For Kids · Children's Dentistry
Children's Dentistry at Mountain Dental
Children are capable of handling more than most dental offices give them credit for. With the right environment and a little patience, kids who come to us regularly tend to get more confident in the chair over time.
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Opening Hours
Mon to Thursday: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM. Friday: By appointment only.
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What We Believe
Most of how a person feels about the dentist for the rest of their life gets decided in childhood. We treat children as whole people who can handle a challenge when an adult takes the time to explain it and lets them set some of the pace. That belief shapes every choice we make for kids, from how we talk them during a cleaning to which materials we put in their mouths.
How We Work with Children
We explain what we are doing in language a child understands, show them the tools before we use them, and let them move at a pace they can actually handle. A five-year-old who learns they can get through something hard tends to grow into an eighteen-year-old who isn’t afraid of the dentist.
Earning a child’s trust takes time, and not every visit goes perfectly. We stay patient with that process, because the goal is bigger than getting through today’s appointment. It is a relationship with dental care that holds up for decades.
When a child needs a little extra help to stay comfortable during a procedure, we offer nitrous oxide, sometimes called laughing gas. It is a mild inhaled relaxation aid that helps a child settle without putting them to sleep. Your child stays awake and responsive the whole time, and the effects clear within minutes once the mask comes off. We talk through whether nitrous makes sense for your child’s situation before we use it, and we use it only when it genuinely helps.
Children's Preventive Care
We see children for exams and cleanings starting when their first teeth come in. Early visits let us watch how your child’s mouth is developing, catch small issues before they grow, and build the kind of steady, low-stress relationship with dental care that pays off for years.
A children’s preventive visit includes a comprehensive exam, a professional cleaning, digital digital X-rays when they are due, and an oral cancer screening. We also spend time with parents on the dietary factors that affect children’s teeth the most, including processed carbohydrates, sugary drinks, and nighttime feeding habits.
Why we don't place sealants
We'd rather not hide a problem.
Sealants are common in children’s dentistry, but the bond between the sealant and the tooth is hard to maintain over time. Food and bacteria can work their way underneath, and a cavity can form beneath a sealant that still looks intact on the surface. Rather than rely on a coating that can hide a problem, we focus on consistent monitoring, nutrition, and early treatment when something needs attention.
Why we don't use fluoride
What we use instead.
For families who prefer to avoid fluoride, we offer ozone oil and remineralization paste as alternatives that help strengthen and protect enamel. We build each child’s preventive plan around what fits your family’s health values.
We treat the whole child, not just the tooth.
Restorative Care for Children
When a child has a cavity or an injured tooth, we treat it with the whole child in mind, not only the tooth in front of us. With baby teeth especially, we weigh the value of a given treatment against how much time that tooth has left before it falls out on its own. Sometimes the right call is to treat and protect the tooth. Sometimes it is to remove it and plan carefully for the space. We walk parents through that thinking before anything happens.
For children’s restorative work we use biocompatible, tooth-colored composites, and we apply ozone where it makes clinical sense to support proper healing.
Baby root canals
Pulpotomies
A pulpotomy, sometimes called a baby root canal, removes the infected portion of the pulp inside a baby tooth while leaving the healthy root in place. It is an option when decay has reached the nerve but the tooth is still sound and has real time left before it would fall out naturally. Saving the tooth holds the space for the permanent tooth and can head off more complicated orthodontic work later.
We offer pulpotomies selectively, only when keeping the tooth clearly serves your child’s long-term outcome better than removing it. A pulpotomy is usually finished with a crown to protect the tooth until it comes out on its own.
Zirconia & stainless steel
Children's Crowns
When a baby tooth has heavy decay or has had a pulpotomy, it often needs a crown to protect what is left until the tooth falls out. We offer two materials: zirconia and stainless steel. Zirconia is metal-free and tooth-colored, and it is what we use for teeth that show. Stainless steel is durable and time-tested, and some families choose it for back molars on a tooth with only a few years left. Our permanent restorations are metal-free. Baby teeth are the one place we offer a metal option, because the tooth is temporary and parents should get to weigh that tradeoff themselves. We walk you through both, based on the specific tooth, your child’s age, how many years that tooth has left, and your family’s preferences around materials.
Gentle, with a plan
Children's Extractions
Sometimes a baby tooth is too damaged to save, even with a conservative option like a pulpotomy. When that happens, removing it is the right choice, and we approach it gently and with a clear plan for what comes next. Depending on the tooth and your child’s age, an extraction may be paired with a space maintainer to hold the gap, or with early orthodontic planning if the missing tooth affects the bite.
Dr. Keith would rather remove a tooth that is past saving and manage the space well than put a young child through aggressive treatment to keep a tooth that is going to fall out anyway.
Metal & metal-free
Space Maintainers
When a baby tooth is lost early, the teeth on either side of the gap can drift into the open space, which leads to crowding once the permanent tooth is ready to come in. A space maintainer is a small custom appliance that holds the gap open until the permanent tooth arrives.
We offer both metal and metal-free options, so families who prefer to avoid metal in their child’s mouth have a choice that fits their values. It is one of the simplest early interventions we do, and it often prevents the need for more involved orthodontic treatment down the road.
Early Intervention and Your Child's Airway
Between the ages of six and ten, a child’s jaw and palate are still developing and respond well to guidance. That window matters, because the structure that takes shape during these years influences how a child breathes, sleeps, and bites for the rest of their life. We look for early signs at routine visits and tell you plainly whether your child would benefit from early treatment or whether watching and waiting is the better call.
Our orthodontic approach is airway-centered. We pay attention to how the tongue rests, how a child breathes, how the cranial bones balance, and how the teeth move. We treat those as one connected system rather than focusing on tooth position alone. Palate expansion is one of the tools we use, and for children in active treatment we often coordinate with Dr. Malori Tinsley at Well Balanced Body Chiropractic located in the same building. The cranial work and the dental work move together.
Because this approach applies to children and adults alike, the full detail lives on our Functional Orthodontics page, including palate expansion, braces, clear aligners for kids, and tongue position appliances. If you are not sure whether your child is a candidate, we can evaluate them at their next comprehensive exam.
The Dental Health Savings Plan for Kids
Many families would rather not let an insurance company decide how often their child sees the dentist. The Dental Health Savings Plan covers your child’s essential preventive care for one flat annual rate, with a discount on any further treatment. Designed to keep kids on a steady six-month schedule through their development years, it is one of the simplest ways to stay ahead of problems.
Ready to get your child started?
Schedule a new patient exam and we’ll take it at your child’s pace, from the very first visit.
or call (530) 642-8614