Congratulations to our birthday party winner!! We hope you had a blast playing football with friends!
Enter your name in our birthday party box at the front desk for YOUR chance to win a birthday party sponsored by Smiles for Kids!
Did you attend our first ever Trunk or Treat?! We hope you had a blast!! We loved the photo booth, DJ and all the yummy treats!
If you couldn’t make it, then stay tuned for our party next Fall!
Thank you to Mathnasium, Bach to Rock and Idea Lab Kids for setting up fun activity booths!
Check out our drawing for the CAVITY-FREE CLUB monthly contest winner! Congrats to….
We are having our Annual Halloween Candy Buy Back program at Smiles For Kids Pediatric Dentistry starting Monday, November 4th!
Have your kids bring their leftover Halloween candy to our office and trade it in for $1.00 per pound (up to $5.00).
We will donate the candy along with toothbrushes to our troops overseas through Troopathon!
It will be an afternoon filled with trick-or-treating, music, photo booth, games and lots of treats! Can’t wait to have you all join us for a spooktacular event! See you there!
More details coming out soon so look for our email in your inbox!
Check out our drawing for the CAVITY-FREE CLUB monthly contest winner! Congrats to….
Halloween is coming up very soon!! You probably have lots of fun tricks and treats planned. We want to provide some recommendations on healthy sweets and treats to share with your BOO, and the ones to be careful of. We’re always looking out for healthy teeth and healthy smiles!!
You want to avoid the sticky, gooey, chewy things! These are candies and sweets such as fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups, gummy bears, jelly beans, skittles, airheads, now & laters, taffy, toffee, caramel, etc. These types of treats stick to the grooves of the teeth for a LONG time and are not easily cleansed by our saliva. Sugars that are in sticky form have the greatest risk for cavities!
You want to avoid the hard candies, too. These are jolly ranchers, life savers, lollipops, etc. These also stick to the teeth and are difficult to come off. This means they spend a long time exposing the teeth to sugar and acid damage.
Finally, you want to avoid those high acidic candies. These include sour candies, sour sprays, fun dip, altoids, sweet tarts, sprees, etc. Acid is dangerous to the outside enamel layer of teeth, and when it causes breakdown, then a cavity forms.
These include chocolates because they melt! Non-food treats include temporary tattoos, stickers, bouncy balls, colored pencils or key chains!
And remember, have your child brush their teeth before bed, and swish their mouth with water after eating Halloween sweets!
Starting September 26th through October 25th we are having our fall contest at Smiles For Kids. Count the fall leaves that are placed around the office. Whoever guesses the number or closest to the right number will win a fun prize.
It will be an afternoon filled with trick-or-treating, music, photo booth, games and lots of treats! Can’t wait to have you all join us for a spooktacular event! See you there!
More details coming out soon so look for our email in your inbox!
Decay starting between the primary molars that cannot be seen visually!
That’s an extra tooth inbetween the developing permanent incisors!
Smiles for Kids is very conservative with our use of x-rays, but they are a necessary tool that helps us fully assess all of our patient’s dental needs. We use them to detect cavities, gum disease, extra or missing teeth, cysts, or infections before they worsen. They are essential to proper oral health and maintenance. X-rays help US help YOU!
Depending on a child’s individualized caries risk status which takes into account their history of cavities, quality of tooth structure, diet and snacking habits, daily oral hygiene, we then set the frequency of X-rays specific for each child. That frequency ranges anywhere from 6, 12 or 18 months. So insurance doesn’t dictate when or how often we take X-rays and they’re not necessary for every visit for every child. It’s specific to your child’s needs!
Did you know that the amount of radiation from a dental X-ray is very small, and the risk from a single image is low? For example, the minimal amount of images we take for each child is less than the amount of radiation from background sources, like the sun, TVs, smartphones, and computers. In our office we use DIGITAL x-rays which are 80-90% less radiation compared to traditional dental X-ray machines.
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We know that school has just started and that means early mornings, getting all the kids out of the house with clothes and shoes one, teeth brushed, homework packed, and on time before the bell rings! We also know that dinner time can be crazy trying to come up with healthy foods for our kids somehow squeezed in-between tutors, music lessons, homework time, and sports. And when our precious babies are finally in bed, parents still have laundry, dishes, other chores and those LUNCHES to pack! Oh how easy it is to reach for prepackaged foods full of sugar and completely lacking in nutrition! Marketing companies make it so easy to pick those up from eye level grocery store shelves… So here we, your Smiles For Kids team, are ready to equip you with some tips on making lunch packing easier for everyone! Start with a lunch box that has compartments! This helps pack the right amount and a variety.
The biggest compartment needs to be filled with the main meal. Sandwich with peanut butter, ham and cheese, or anything else your kids love is a good choice. Try to pick non-white bread to make it a bit more healthy. You can also pack a salad, pasta, meatballs, chicken, etc into that larger compartment. Simple wraps made with tortillas are also great ideas kids love. You can make enough pasta to last the whole week. You can make few sandwiches at a time and store in your fridge. The main meal should be an easy pick and pack on daily basis instead of making something new every day.
One of the smaller compartments can fit fruit and/or veggies. For fruit we suggest anything that can easily be sliced at the beginning of the week or fits into the box without cutting up. Apples, oranges, berries, grapes, or kiwis are all great and can be cut up on Sunday night and distributed daily. Best veggies are the ones that your kids will eat. We find that kids like carrots, celery, broccoli, peas in a pod, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. Have them all ready for easy “throw in” at the beginning of the week.
Another small compartment can be used for a healthy carb such as pretzels, healthier version of chips or crackers. Kids like crunchy snacks in addition to their main meal and fruit and veggies. Granola or nut mixes are also great to fill in this spot. If you choose to pack granola bars, read labels as they are often filled with empty calories and sugar. However, there are many great alternatives on the market now, so do your research before and buy in bulk.
Last but not least…. a TREAT! The smallest compartment should be the one filled with a treat. Try to stay away from anything that is sticky, gooey or filled with chemicals. But a piece of chocolate, small cookie, chocolate or yogurt dipped pretzels, never hurt anyone and your kids will look forward to those little treats!
SNACKS - these might not fit in a lunch box, but your kids will appreciate something to snack on throughout the day. There are plenty of healthy and non-sugar filled yogurts, apple sauces, puddings, fresh fruit such as apples and bananas, and other packaged foods that can make your kids happy!
DRINKS - we have only one word… WATER. A carton of milk at lunch time is perfectly healthy, but otherwise they need nothing but water to drink throughout the day. And lots of it! Encourage them to stay hydrated. Flavored waters without sugar or sodium can be a once a day treat as well. Stay away from soda, energy drinks and sports drinks as those are loaded with unnecessary soda!
We sure do hope that this helps guide your on your daily lunch box quest! Remember, the less cutting, slicing, and spreading you can do daily, the less you will despise lunch making hour! And if we have to summarize it in one sentence here it is:
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I don’t think anybody really likes those ooey-gooey, messy molds dentists take of your teeth for crowns, appliances, retainers, mouth guards, Invisalign, etc. Great news is we don’t have to use those anymore! We use a digital scanner called an iTero Intraoral Scanner that takes thousands of photos of your teeth (6,000 per second to be exact) and turns it into a 3D digital model! We can scan the entire mouth with our “magic wand” in just a few short minutes. That’s fast! The scanner takes only photos so no radiation is involved in the process and the scan is completely painless and atraumatic. After the scan is completed, we virtually send it to our dental lab with just the click of a button.
The intraoral scanner is a game changer for fearful children or those with strong gag reflexes. You can take breaks any time during the scan and then pick up where you left of without having to start all over again. Children get excited to see their own teeth on the screen and watch them “magically” appear in live action!
As with the other tools and technology in our office, the intraoral scanner helps to make your appointments as easy and convenient as possible!
We cannot wait to see you and hear about your July 4th holiday! We hope you are all safe with minimal damage from the storm.
Our office will be closed Monday, July 8th. Our team will be staying home and safe with their families during storm Beryl so we will not be returning calls or emails during this time. We encourage you to please stay home and be safe as well. We will reopen on Tuesday if conditions allow. If there are any changes for Tuesday, we will contact our patients. Please stay tuned to our social media pages, website and your email for further communications from our office.
If you have a true dental emergency, call 713-461-1509 and you will be directed to Dr. Theriot on call.
Sincerely, Dr. Lindhorst, Dr. Theriot and the entire SFK team!
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Welcome to Smiles For Kids Pediatric Dentistry, a place where dental health is an adventure!
Our goal is to make every child's dental experience fun, rewarding, and positive. Our team wants to make sure that each and every child leaves our office feeling like they have learned more about their teeth and oral hygiene while spending a wonderful time with us.
8800 Katy Freeway Suite 220 • Houston, TX 77024 • 713-461-1509 • E-Mail: DrKasia@Smiles-For-Kids.com
Photos provided by Little Branch Photography
