Accepting New Patients
Accepting New Patients
Your pediatrician probably brought it up at your child’s most recent well visit: it is time to see the dentist. If your child is around a year old, that recommendation is right on schedule. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Academy of Pediatrics both recommend every child establish a dental home by their first birthday or when their first tooth comes in, whichever happens first. For a lot of first-time parents, that timeline feels surprisingly early, but there are real reasons behind it, and the visit itself is far more straightforward than most parents expect.
At Silicon Beach Pediatric Dental, Dr. Ray Klein and Dr. Hayley Botwin offer infant oral health exams designed for very young children. These visits are short, calm, and built around helping your child have a positive first experience at the dentist. They are also a genuine chance for you to get answers to the questions you have probably been researching at 10 o’clock at night. Our broader approach to early childhood dental care is part of everything we do under our pediatric dentistry services.
Baby teeth begin erupting around six months of age. From the moment those first teeth come in, they are at risk for early childhood caries, one of the most common chronic conditions in young children. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that children who establish a dental home early are significantly more likely to receive consistent preventive care and less likely to develop dental disease that needs more involved treatment later. Starting at age one also gives Dr. Ray and Dr. Hayley a baseline to track development from, which becomes valuable as more teeth come in and the jaw grows.
Early visits also offer a practical benefit that is easy to overlook: they get your child familiar with the dental office before any treatment is needed. A child who has visited the dentist several times before needing a filling has a very different relationship with dental care than a child whose first experience involves something uncomfortable. Building that familiarity early is one of the most useful things you can do for your child’s long-term dental health.
For infants and very young toddlers, the exam typically uses a knee-to-knee position. You sit across from Dr. Ray or Dr. Hayley, and your child lies with their head resting in the dentist’s lap and their legs on yours. It keeps your child physically close to you while giving the dentist a clear, full view of the mouth. For most families, this is both easier and less stressful than they expected.
Even with just a handful of teeth, there is quite a bit to check. A thorough infant oral health exam typically covers:
Beyond the clinical exam, this visit is a conversation. Dr. Ray and Dr. Hayley use the time to answer your specific questions, not generic ones. Whether you are wondering about teething pain, how to brush a baby’s teeth, whether your child’s bottle use is affecting their teeth, or what to do about a tooth that came in looking different from the others, this is the visit to ask.
Infants start developing habits and oral environments well before they have any teeth at all. How they are fed, whether they take a bottle to bed, and whether their gum tissue is cleaned all set the stage for what happens when teeth come in. Dr. Ray and Dr. Hayley will walk you through what good oral hygiene looks like for an infant, what products fit this age, and how diet and bottle use affect early cavity risk.
You do not need to prepare anything specific before the appointment. Just bring your child, your questions, and your insurance card. If your child is in a phase where strangers are not particularly welcome, that is normal, and our team knows how to work with it. A child who cries during their first dental visit is not having a bad experience. They are having a developmentally normal one.
Parents arrive at these visits with a lot on their minds, and that is exactly what the appointment is for. Some of the questions Dr. Ray and Dr. Hayley hear most often from parents of infants and young toddlers include:
These are real questions real parents ask, and they deserve straightforward answers rather than vague reassurance. That is what this visit is built for.
Dr. Ray Klein and Dr. Hayley Botwin have built their Culver City practice around the idea that great pediatric dental care starts early and stays consistent. Dr. Ray is a board-certified pediatric dentist, and Dr. Hayley is board-eligible, both trained specifically to care for children from infancy through the teen years. You can read more about Dr. Ray and Dr. Hayley on our site. Their approach is calm, direct, and focused on making you feel informed rather than overwhelmed.
We work with most PPO insurance plans, and infant oral health exams are usually covered as preventive care. Check your coverage so you know what to expect before your visit. If your child’s first tooth has already made an appearance or their first birthday is coming up, now is a good time to get them on the calendar. Reach out through our contact form, and we will take it from there. This visit fits naturally alongside other early services, like digital X-rays, as your child grows.
Mon-Fri: 9am – 5pm
