Tooth Fairy Day at Oral Health Care Professionals, LLC – website

This is a great free event (you don’t even have to be a patient) to help kids learn about and get comfortable with the dentist office. It is not an examination or cleaning, just a fun introduction to the dentist.

Some older kids or adults may be fearful of the dentist, but here’s a really important tip from Oral Health Care Professionals: It’s good to avoid saying things like, “Don’t be afraid” or “They won’t hurt you” to your young children because these are things that probably never entered their minds.

Location: Oral Health Care Professionals, LLC, 2033 Ogden Avenue, Downers Grove

Phone: 630-963-6750

Date: Friday, May 18, 2012. Call for an appointment.

Parking: Free parking in attached lot.

Bathrooms: There is a private bathroom. No changing table.

Nursing: No designated nursing area, but a comfortable waiting room.

Handicapped/stroller accessibility: The building is handicapped and stroller accessible. I wouldn’t recommend bringing a stroller if it can be avoided because it may be difficult to maneuver in certain areas.

Other amenities: There is a separate children’s waiting room with a mural on the wall, a train table, and toys.

We paid: Nothing. This is a free event and you do NOT need to be a patient of Oral Health Care Professionals.

Our experience:

I heard about Tooth Fairy Day at Oral Health Care Professionals last summer and I was really excited about it so we made an appointment for the September Tooth Fairy Day with my friend Joslyn, and her daughters Althea and Autumn. My kids, who were 1 and 3 at the time, had not been to the dentist yet (I know, bad mommy!) so I was thrilled to have an opportunity for them to see a dentist’s office, meet a dentist, and meet the Tooth Fairy to warm them up to the idea.

Visiting a dentist can be scary for kids (and adults), but Tooth Fairy Day is designed to be an introduction to all the tools and instruments a dentist uses without having the children actually examined.

We were greeted by the friendly staff and Dr. Jackson and the kids were given tooth-shaped nametags to wear. Dr. Jackson talked to the kids and brought us into an examining room. He was very good with the kids and encouraged them to look around the room and climb on the chair.

Cooper was very excited to try out the chair; he hopped up and got to work the controls to move the chair up and down and recline the back. The other kids were a little more timid, but they all got very excited about the camera. Dr. Jackson explained to them how he looks inside patients’ mouths with a very tiny camera and let them look at their skin magnified on the monitor in the room. The kids even got to squirt water across the room into the sink.

After Dr. Jackson explained the instruments and what dentists do we moved on to another room where the Tooth Fairy was waiting for us. The kids got to talk to her and ask questions and then they received a goodie bag (with their very own toothbrushes and toothpaste, of course), a balloon, a hand stamp, and got their picture taken with the Tooth Fairy. Joslyn and I took pictures of the kids, but they gave us a free print too.

After meeting the Tooth Fairy, we had one more stop at the front desk for a treat from the dispenser – superballs.

Finally, we stopped in the kids waiting room, a separate room from the main waiting room, where they have a mural on the wall, a train table, and toys to keep the kids busy.

This was a great activity to do with the kids. They learned about what a dentist does, they were entertained and excited, and they got lots of non-candy goodies to take home – a great way to make the first trip to the dentist a positive one.