Bright LittleDentistry for children
(614) 555-0142Emergency

Paediatric dentistry · Columbus, OH

Big feelings.
Small teeth.
We are good with both.

A dental practice built at a child's eye height, for ages one to eighteen — including the children other practices found difficult. Medicaid and CHIP accepted.

  • Medicaid & CHIP taken
  • Ages 1 to 18
  • Sensory-friendly visits
A cut-paper pop-up: the clinic on a hill under a big sun, with bunting across the front, a tooth-shaped door and two little tooth characters on the grass.

Plate 01 · you are here

Plate 02 · Asked at the desk, every week

The four things parents ask us first

Answered here, before you have to ring anyone.

  • Do you take Medicaid?

    Yes — Ohio Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP. We check your eligibility on the phone before you come in.

    What we accept
  • When should the first visit be?

    By the first birthday, or within six months of the first tooth. It is mostly talking, and it takes about half an hour.

    What happens
  • Will it hurt?

    We will not promise you a pain-free visit — nobody honest can. We will tell your child what each thing feels like first, and stop when they ask.

    How we work
  • My child cannot cope with a normal appointment.

    Then we do not book a normal appointment. Desensitising visits, quiet room, headphones, and as many goes as it takes.

    Special needs care

Plate 04 · Five frames, about forty minutes

Your first visit, frame by frame

Push the strip. The top line of every frame is written for a child to follow; the bottom line is for you.

The whole story

1 of 5 · push the strip

  1. You say hello

    You come in, and someone says your name. There is a box of books and a fish tank. Nothing happens yet.

    For the grown-up: Arrive ten minutes early for the first visit so there is paperwork time that is not appointment time.

  2. The chair goes up and down

    The big chair moves! You get to make it go up. If you would rather sit on a grown-up, that is allowed too.

    For the grown-up: For under-threes we do a knee-to-knee exam with you holding your child, facing you the whole time.

  3. We count your teeth

    We count them out loud with a little mirror. You can hold the mirror. Some children get to two, some get to twenty.

    For the grown-up: This is a full examination: soft tissues, bite, eruption pattern, decay risk. It just does not look like one.

  4. The tickly toothbrush

    A spinny brush that tickles and tastes like bubblegum, strawberry or mint. You pick.

    For the grown-up: A prophy cleaning, then fluoride varnish for most children. Varnish sets in seconds; eat soft food for two hours.

  5. You choose a prize

    You did it. The treasure box is by the desk and you get to pick one thing from it.

    For the grown-up: We book the next check-up before you leave, and send you home with what we actually saw, in writing.

Plate 05 · for the grown-up in the room

The room itself, photographed honestly

The illustrations above are for your child. This part is for you. Every operatory is set up for children specifically — smaller instruments, a ceiling screen, and a nurse whose entire job during a filling is to keep your child calm.

  • Instruments are heat-sterilised in sealed pouches and opened in front of you.
  • You are welcome in the room at any age, for any appointment.
  • Written estimates before treatment, not after.
How we run the place
A children's dental treatment room with rounded sky-blue cabinetry, a ceiling-mounted screen above the chair and a painted forest mural
Gloved hands arranging sealed sterilisation pouches of dental instruments on a stainless steel tray
The waiting area: rounded turquoise and yellow bench seating, a low reading nook with wooden blocks and picture books
The quiet room: dimmable warm lighting, a folded weighted blanket on a rounded bench and noise-cancelling headphones

Plate 07 · sensory-friendly care

If a normal appointment will not work, we will not book one

Dr Raman plans visits backwards from what your child can actually manage. Sometimes that is three appointments where nothing clinical happens at all — a ride in the chair, a look at the light, a hello to the suction — before anyone attempts a cleaning. That is not a wasted appointment. That is the appointment.

Quiet room, weighted blanket, headphones, sunglasses, no overhead announcements, first or last slot of the day so the waiting room is empty. Tell us what your child needs and we will write it into their notes so you never have to explain it twice.

How sensory-friendly visits work

Plate 06 · loose leaves, unfold to read

Notes parents left

Six notes, folded shut. Open the ones that sound like your child.

  • He had screamed through his last two appointments somewhere else. Here they spent the first visit just counting his teeth with a mirror and let him keep the mirror. Second visit he sat on his own.
  • They found four cavities and did not make me feel like a bad mother about it. We did two visits, nitrous for the back one, and she asked to go back.

Plate 08 · out of hours

Something has happened tonight?

A knocked-out permanent tooth is a minutes-matter emergency. A knocked-out baby tooth must not be put back. The instructions for both — plus broken teeth, swelling, bitten lips and jaw injuries — are on one page, written to be read in a hurry.

Ready when you are

Book a first visit online, or ring us and speak to a person. We will tell you what the appointment involves before you come.