How Local Dentists Are Improving Children’s Dental Experience

From televisions playing Paw Patrol above the treatment chairs to whimsical themes, there’s been an effort to make dentists’ offices a little more fun and a lot more comfortable for children, in turn making kids less resistant to treatment. “Our main goal is that not a single one of our patients leaves here and [becomes] that adult we see so often that’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I never go to the dentist because I had a bad experience as a kid,’ ” says dentist Roya Pilcher, whose Spring Valley practice is called Smile Valley. Here’s what practices are doing.

Sneak Peek

The unfamiliarity of a dental office (and its medieval-looking tools) can be scary for kids. To help them arrive for treatment in the right headspace, practices are creating appointment slots during which kids can just hang out and adjust to the experience—no saying “ah” required. DC Pediatric Smiles schedules free tours, typically in the afternoon. According to dentist Derek Blank, a staff member walks children around the space, letting them pick sunglasses to try on, visit the prize station, and see the chalkboard with all the patient names, including their own. “The second time they pull up to our parking lot and walk in the office, it’s so much more familiar,” he says. “They’ve already been desensitized to a lot of the sounds and different new things.” Smile Valley offers behavioral-management appointments, 30-minute sessions in which a kid can take small steps toward a full treatment or cleaning. “For example, today all we’re doing is you’re touching the toothbrush and putting it on your own tooth, and that’s it for the appointment,” says dentist Priya Shah. “Next appointment, the doctor will use it.”

Smell of Success

Can you still conjure the specific scent of your childhood dentist’s office? “We have our 1980s, 1990s perception of you walk into the dental office, it smells like impression material or whatever gunky old-school dental offices would smell like,” says Blank. The sense of smell is strongly intertwined with memory and emotion, so the right (or wrong) smell can have a powerful impact. Like real-estate agents baking brownies before an open house, practices are making an effort to create an experience that’s about not just the teeth but also the nose. At Children’s Choice in DC and New Carrollton, owner Jonelle Anamelechi consults with “child life” specialists who look at everything from colorful emotion wheels to fragrance best practices, which she brings to her office in the form of allergy-free wax melts. “We have different flavors of the month,” says Anamelechi. “It may smell like chocolate-chip cookies or it may smell like bubble gum.” For spaces dedicated to newborn families, Anamelechi opts for soothing lavender.

Inclusive Options

Dentists’ offices can be especially nightmarish for patients with sensory sensitivities. Familiarizing appointments such as the ones at Smile Valley are helpful, and many dentists will also dim lights by request, but there’s the issue of sensory overload during the procedures themselves. At VK Pediatric Dentistry in Arlington, Dr. Peter Markov has a lineup of toothpaste choices that are geared toward different needs. That includes a variety of flavors, though kids can bring their own if familiarity is helpful, or go for a flavorless paste to completely avoid a taste aversion. The options also extend to the toothpaste’s feeling, from coarse (the preference for cleaning) to a finer grit. “The mild is a lot more palatable—it’s easier for kids that are really sensitive to textures,” says Markov. “We always end with a positive, because for most kids it’s a win that they even came to their dentist appointment.”

In Alignment

A local doctor is behind the first orthodontic recycling program

Orthodontia has a plastic problem, and the popularity of clear aligners isn’t helping. Invisalign touts that it has changed 22 million smiles. “We did the math,” says Maddy Goodman, an orthodontist at Bethesda’s Harmony Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics. “In total, each aligner patient generates approximately 11 pounds of plastic. Multiply that by all the other aligner brands out there. It’s a lot.” Shocked, she started Tiny Changes, a recycling program for orthodontic waste.

Clear trays can’t be processed through municipal recycling, so they end up in landfills. Working with the recycling company Terracycle and the Middle Atlantic Society of Orthodontists, Goodman launched Tiny Changes in 2025. The first recycling bin is free for offices to test; they can buy subsequent ones for $99. Now more than 500 locations across the US and Canada participate. A variety of plastics can go in the boxes, from aligners and clear retainers to used toothbrushes. Says Goodman: “If someone brings back five aligners, that’s five aligners that aren’t in the ocean.”