Pediatric dentistry
The teeth are the simple part
Paediatrics is the only chair in dentistry where the clinical work is rarely the difficult thing. If you can hold a room with a frightened four year old and their frightened parent in it, you are doing something most of the profession finds harder than any procedure.
Tap anybody in the room.
The patient
Four years old, and out of ways to tell you
They are not being difficult and they are not a small adult. They have no vocabulary for what is frightening them, so it arrives as wriggling, or silence, or a sudden decision that the appointment is over. Whatever is going to happen is usually clear before the chair goes back.
Four things people find out in their first week
The clinical work is the easy part
Sealants, fluoride, small restorations, space maintainers. None of it is technically demanding compared with what happens in an adult chair. Everything difficult about the day happens before the handpiece comes out and has nothing to do with teeth.
You are on your feet and on show all day
There is no coasting through a paediatric list. Every single appointment starts from scratch with somebody who does not know you and has no reason yet to trust you, and you do that fifteen or twenty times before you go home.
It is the most emotionally variable day in dentistry
Appointments end in high fives and appointments end in tears, sometimes back to back. People who thrive here are the ones who can let the previous room go completely as they walk into the next one.
Nobody forgets the person who was kind to them
Adults who are frightened of dentists are usually describing something that happened to them at six. The reverse is also true, and it is the plainest reason to do this work.
Who paediatric practices ask us for
- Pediatric dental assistant
- The core chairside role. Behaviour guidance, four-handed work in a small mouth, and keeping a room moving without ever appearing rushed.
- Registered dental hygienist
- Recall, sealants, fluoride, and often the first person a child ever meets in a dental practice. That first appointment sets the tone for decades.
- Front office and reception
- A waiting room with children in it is not a waiting room. Scheduling around school hours, siblings booked together, and parents who need the plan explained twice.
- Sterilization support
- Short appointments, high volume, and instrument turnover to match. Larger practices staff the room separately.
Paediatric dentists are placed through our permanent side rather than as temp cover.
Experience a paediatric request can ask for
- Behaviour guidance
- Sealants and fluoride
- Space maintainer assisting
- Paediatric radiographs
- Nitrous oxide monitoring, where your credentials and jurisdiction allow
- Working with patients who have additional needs
You list what you have done and requests reach the people who have listed it. We verify licensing and insurance on temp placements. What your credentials permit is set by your province or state rather than by us.
What you are actually agreeing to
On a temp shift we are your employer
Payroll, source deductions and insurance sit with us.
Who employs meLicensing and insurance verified once
Verified for temp placements and kept current.
Verifying your licencePut paediatric on your profile
Practices know the difference between somebody who works with children and somebody who is good with them, and they will book the second one back every time.