In this episode of Dentistry Cribs, we visit an award-winning paediatric dental practice, Happy Kids Dental.
Happy Kids Dental, with two locations in Chelsea and Marylebone, was founded by siblings Roksolana Mykhalus and Yevhen Hunyak.
After they both started their own families, they were inspired to create a dental practice which specialises in paediatric dentistry, focusing on the specific needs of children.
‘Happy Kids Dental is a family business founded by my brother and myself,’ Roksolana says. ‘We are second-generation dentists and it was always a dream of ours to have a practice that is focused on prevention and paediatric dentistry.’
When they first started their business, Roksolana and Yevhen were told that the practice would not survive past two years.
‘Five years into our journey, we are proud to say that we are the biggest paediatric practice in the UK. We have seen more than 10,000 patients and more than 129 practices in London and the UK are referring to us.’
Positive experience
‘As you see, everything in here is geared towards children,’ she adds.
The brushing station is fitted with crocodile, tiger and hippo mirrors, along with two-minute timers and enlarged toothbrushes. This allows patients to turn brushing their teeth into a fun and positive experience, and helps to calm down any children who might be feeling nervous.
The play area is kitted with toys and game for all ages, from young babies to teenagers.
‘This is a really good distraction tool for the children here,’ practice manager Nicola Booth says. ‘So when they are really nervous or they might have had bad experiences in the past, it’s a really nice way to get them in.
‘The dentist can have a chat with the parents while the child is distracted by the Pac-Man machines, our iPads. It really keeps them calm before they go into the surgery.’
Child-friendly
But it’s not just the colourful and playful interior design of the practice which helps children feel comfortable when visiting the dentist. The entire dental team has been trained in child-friendly language and communication.
‘The language that we use here is all based around children,’ Nicola says. ‘There are no mentions of anything scary, anything about pain or anything like that. We all have training when we come in in the language we used to speak to children.’
The practices are also fully kitted out in child-friendly equipment, helping to make their treatment more safe and comfortable.
Intraoral scanners are used throughout appointments which has also proved to be a great education tool for children because they can see exactly what’s going on in their mouth.
As well as this, each surgery has inhalation sedation which helps to calm down the particularly nervous patients.
In addition, their Dentsply Sirona OPG machine is specifically set up for paediatric dentistry, with five times less radiation than a typical OPG machine.
‘Everything you see here is specifically built for the children,’ Nicola adds.
‘We make sure that we cater for all ages – whether you are a mum with a young baby or a teenager, we make sure that we can see everybody here.’
Watch the full video above.
Watch previous Dentistry Cribs:
- The Dental Architect
- Dove Holistic Dental Centre
- Baycliff Dental & Implant Surgery
- Gareth McAleer – Beyond Dental
- Gurms Raja – Smiles by Gurms.
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