As various friends were having kids they were asking me about when to bring them to the dentist and how to best take care their baby’s teeth. I offered to do the first few check-up visits at their homes and I discovered that both my little patients as well as their parents were much more at ease in their own environment than in my traditional environment full of new sights and sounds. I also found that I was able to better see what the current habits and practices were of the family and so was able to better tailor my advice to them.

When COVID-19 hit and I was restricted to teledentistry I felt a little limited in what I could do to help my patients. I also felt that the way we delivered oral care had to drastically change due to the increased risk of producing aerosols and the need to reduce unnecessary exposure. I started thinking how I could deliver the best care in the safety of people’s homes and decided that a combination of teledentistry, minimally-invasive dentistry, and emergency dentistry would address the needs of most children. So with that and the guidance of lots of wonderful mentors, “Happy Smiles: Pediatric Dentistry at Home” was born!