Board-certified pediatric care
Pediatric Dentistry
Dr. Letitia Edwards, a board-certified pediatric dentist, sees children at Southridge Dental Care in Henderson, from their first visit through the teen years.
Chapter 01
A board-certified pediatric dentist, not a general dentist seeing kids
Dr. Letitia Edwards is a board-certified pediatric dentist who sees children at Southridge Dental Care. She earned her DDS from the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry and completed her pediatric dental residency at USC, where her training included treating patients with special needs such as autism and craniofacial differences such as cleft lip and palate.
That training is the difference between pediatric dentistry and general dentistry scaled down for a smaller patient. A child's teeth, jaw growth and behavior in the chair are all different from an adult's, and a residency built specifically around treating children is what Dr. Edwards brings to a family in Henderson choosing where to take their kids.
Dr. Letitia Edwards, board-certified pediatric dentist at Southridge Dental Care
From a child's first visit through the teen years
Dr. Edwards sees children at Southridge Dental Care from a child's first dental visit straight through the teen years, so the same dentist who sees a young child can still be the one checking their bite and their growing adult teeth years later. Continuity like that matters more for kids than it does for adults: a familiar face and a familiar office make each visit easier than starting over somewhere new.
For families without dental insurance, the Southridge Dental Discount Program's family membership, $175 a year, covers a household's dependent children under 18 alongside a parent, so a child's exams and cleanings are not priced separately from the rest of the family's care.
Chapter 03
Helping an anxious kid get through the appointment
Some kids walk in and sit down without a second thought. Others need more from the visit, and a few things tend to help: talking about the appointment plainly and briefly beforehand rather than building it up, letting the office explain what is happening in the chair in its own kid-friendly words instead of a parent describing it first, and bringing along whatever small thing usually helps a child feel steady in a new place.
What does not help is promising a child that nothing will happen or that it will not feel like anything at all. Being honest in simple terms holds up better once they are actually in the chair. Dr. Edwards sees children at Southridge Dental Care; call (702) 777-4700 to ask about scheduling a first visit or a follow-up.
Dr. Letitia Edwards sees children at Southridge Dental Care, 1000 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 120, Henderson. Call (702) 777-4700 to ask about scheduling.
For more on preparing a child for the dentist, see our guide to helping a child overcome dental anxiety.
More at Southridge Dental