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If you have a child who loves arts and crafts, try some of these creative projects with a dental twist. One of these activities is sure to give your child something to smile about!

Toothbrush Art

Why throw away that used toothbrush when you can help your young child make art with it? Give it one more cleaning and a second life. The easy-to-grip handle and the wide bristles make a toothbrush easy for young hands to hold and paint with. If you are in an adventurous mood, use the brush to make splatter art. Your child can splatter an entire sheet of paper for an abstract effect, make a sky full of stars with a flick of the brush, or add splatter leaves to a tree scene. Cut out a stencil with a favorite shape (an animal, a flower, a toy), place it on a sheet of paper, splatter around it, remove the cutout, and—instant silhouette!

Paper Crafts

If your child is an origami enthusiast, there are some challenging dental-themed examples available online. These might be too advanced for beginners, but more experienced origami fans can make molars with roots and even molars lined with pink paper to symbolize the interior pulp. Younger paper artists might enjoy making construction paper models of an actual tooth, with white enamel, yellow dentin, and pink pulp layered in their proper order.

Sculpting Fun

For the scientifically minded young artist, clay can be used to make a 3D model of a tooth, with different colored clays representing the different layers of the tooth. Younger children learning about their teeth might enjoy fitting little white clay teeth into a pink clay crescent to show how baby (or adult) teeth fit into the gums. And for non-dental inspiration, old, clean toothbrushes can once again help out if your child likes sculpting art work with modeling clay. Add interesting texture by using the brush bristles on damp clay to create grooves, lines, or indentations.

Welcome the Tooth Fairy

If the Tooth Fairy is a regular visitor, make her welcome with a box decorated with paint or fabric to hold that special baby tooth. Or craft a pouch or a bag with fabrics scraps, and add a fabric tooth so that the Tooth Fairy will know she has come to the right spot. If you use felt and fabric glue, no sewing necessary! If your Tooth Fairy is an under-the-pillow traditionalist, decorate an envelope with a letter to the Tooth Fairy inside.

If some of these projects sound just right for your child, check out online craft sites for even more ideas. And, please be sure to have your children show and tell the next time they visit our Simsbury, CT office. That will put a smile on our faces!

It’s common for toddlers to be wary of strangers, but their first experience at the dentist shouldn’t be a scary one. Dr. Maryam Azadpur and our team have five tips for you to make your child’s first visit to Simsbury Pediatric & Adolescent Dentistry easy as pie!

1. Bringing your child to one of your own appointments before his or her first dental visit can calm your little one’s nerves. This gives your son or daughter the opportunity to get familiar with our office and see a cleaning isn’t very scary.
2. Our big dental chair can be fun! Toddlers love games, and seeing the chair go up and down can make it seem like an amusement ride rather than sitting down for an exam.
3. Dr. Maryam Azadpur and our team hand out cool toothbrushes and stickers to kids after their appointment. Your child will love the fun-colored toothbrush and can look forward to a post-appointment prize at the next visit.
4. Schedule your appointment for a time that sets you up for success. Bringing your child to our Simsbury, CT office an hour before he or she is due for a nap may be a tantrum just waiting to happen.
5. Kids love books! Try reading your toddler bedtime stories about what happens at the dentist before you come in for the appointment. We recommend Dora the Explorer’s Show Me Your Smile, written by Christine Ricci.

One question our team at Simsbury Pediatric & Adolescent Dentistry hear all the time is, “When should I start brushing my baby’s teeth?”

You should begin regular cleanings even before your baby has teeth. After each breast feeding (or bottle-feeding) use a clean, damp washcloth to gently rub your baby’s gum tissue. You may wrap the material around one finger to make it easier to remove any food bits from your baby’s mouth.

When your baby’s first tooth comes in, switch to a baby toothbrush. Look for special baby toothbrushes in your drugstore; they have just a few bristles and are very soft. There are even brushes shaped like finger puppets that fit over the tip of your pointer finger! All you need at this point is water (no toothpaste yet).

After a few more teeth appear, you may start using toothpaste, but you only need a tiny bit, and make sure it doesn’t contain fluoride for the first two years. From the beginning, have your little one practice spitting the toothpaste out after brushing. That way, he or she will already have the good habit of spitting when you switch to fluoride toothpaste, which should never be swallowed.

If you have any questions about caring for your baby’s teeth, or to schedule an appointment at our convenient Simsbury, CT office, please contact Simsbury Pediatric & Adolescent Dentistry.

Happy July from Simsbury Pediatric & Adolescent Dentistry. We reopened on June 1 and our new safety implementations are going great! Today, we wanted to share a few updates with you.

Since reopening, we have followed, and continue to follow, all mandates and guidelines from the CT Health Department and the CDC. On top of our already stringent protocols, we have put some new procedures and cleaning protocols in place to ensure optimal cleanliness throughout our office. As team members arrive each morning, they have their temperatures taken and wear varying levels of PPE depending on their role. To see how Dr. Azadpur looks in her new gear, check out the cute video on our Facebook page!

An important reminder regarding appointments: All appointments made prior to the shutdown (March 17) are being rescheduled. We ask that you DO NOT COME INTO THE OFFICE UNLESS YOU HAVE SPOKEN WITH ONE OF OUR TEAM MEMBERS DIRECTLY! We have had to reschedule ALL appointments for the foreseeable future to allow for additional cleaning time in between patients. Call the office at 860-658-7548, and one of our very helpful team members will be happy to book your appointment. All forms are now online, so you will need to visit our website at https://www.simsburychildrensdentistry.com/ and create an account access request if you haven't already done so. This will allow you to submit the COVID-19 screening form and Health History updates electronically, thus avoiding the check-in tablet altogether.

Two days prior to all scheduled appointments, the COVID-19 and Health History forms will be accessible on our website. Please submit them at that time. Just a friendly reminder; call our office once you arrive. Upon entry, all patients and family members will have their temperatures taken and will be required to wear a mask. If you don't have one, we will provide you with one.

We thank everyone for complying with our new health and safety implementations! When we all comply with safety measures, it protects not only yourself but those around you. It is one of the reasons Connecticut has greatly reduced the spread of COVID-19. It demonstrates to others that you care about their health and safety as well as your own.
We sure do miss hugging our little patients. We miss taking new patients and their families on a tour of our office. We miss the toys and magazines in the reception area, not to mention the coffee station! It can be difficult to stay positive when there is so much of our normal office routine we miss. Knowing we are contributing to the health and well being of our community helps us to stay positive. Watching the number of COVID-19 cases decrease each day also helps us to keep looking toward the future when things might hopefully go back to a semblance of normal.

While we have temporarily suspended our quarterly raffles until we can safely resume them, we are still running our Review and Referral programs. All referrals and reviews are greatly appreciated and we will collect those names to be entered into the next drawing, once we start it back up.

During our shutdown, we celebrated several birthdays, mostly in May. Emily, one of our Front Desk team members, celebrated her one year anniversary with our office. Also, we welcomed Alison, our new hygienist, who is already a big hit with our patients. We are so happy to have you on our team, Alison!

We are very happy to be back open and seeing our patients and their families again. We missed them very much! We hope everyone stays safe and healthy and enjoys the warm summer months.