THUNDER BAY – Some students will return to school next week with a smile, thanks in part to the staff at Sky Dental Centre.
The dentists and hygienists working at the south-side clinic on Wednesday offered their services free of charge to school-aged children four and older, helping those who might not otherwise be able to afford care to have their teeth cleaned and inspected.
For others it was an incentive to head to the dentist’s office.
Nine-year-old Kyler Glenn was one of the youngsters who signed up, his father bringing him in for a visit to have his teeth checked.
There’s a good reason to visit the dentist, he said.
“So you can get your cavities removed and to clean their teeth or else they’ll get cavities and their teeth will get all rotted,” Kyler said.
While a trip to the dentist can be a frightening experience for some children, there’s no reason to be afraid of it, he added, not long after his mouth was frozen with a needle.
“Just don’t think about it when you’re going and when it’s happening,” he said, later shown how to properly brush and floss his teeth.
Showing him how was Dr. Sami Alkahalili, whose colleagues dressed up as superheroes for the day, said the idea behind the free dental day was to encourage parents to bring their kids in for a check-up, without the additional expense in the midst of back-to-school shopping.
The goal is to convince parents it’s important to develop good dental habits and care, even at a young age.
“Most of the parents think it’s just baby teeth,” Alkahalili said. “It’s not important to spend money on or to keep them because they’re going to get another set of teeth. Unfortunately that’s not true. We usually recommend they get check-ups as soon as their first baby teeth come in, which is usually by their first birthday.”
Having healthy teeth helps maintain good nutrition for a child.
“The other thing is they maintain the space for the adult teeth that are going to come in, which saves (parents) a lot of expenses down the road getting braces and all these kinds of things,” Alkahalili said. “I see, unfortunately, some parents come in and say ‘just take it out, it’s a baby tooth.’
“That’s not how it should be,”
Sky Dental Centre is open until 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
