Every practice meets a hundred nervous six-year-olds. Here's the story of how one of them — call her Poppy; you know a Poppy — went from silent in the back seat to holding court in the playground. And how to run the same game with yours.
The quiet drive
The school-run route, but quieter than usual. Poppy in her booster seat, her teddy, red bow and all, held a little tighter than normal, watching the houses slide past and saying nothing. Nobody had told her anything scary — nobody needed to. Six-year-olds are champion collectors of other people's worries: a cousin's story, a cartoon, the careful way a grown-up once said "it won't hurt a bit."
Poppy's mum watched her in the mirror and decided the next visit was going to go very differently. Not with a pep talk. With a game.
The game begins at home
That evening, Poppy's living room became a dental surgery. Torch, mirror, teddy in the waiting room and Poppy as the dentist. She counted her mum's teeth (thirty-seven, apparently, twice), declared them "strong as a crocodile's", and awarded her a sticker for bravery. Then they swapped. By the weekend teddy had been seen four times and had the best teeth in the house.
Three words also quietly disappeared from the family vocabulary — hurt, needle, scary — because children hear the scary word and skip the "no" in front of it. In their place, the game's official language: the dentist counts your teeth. Checks how strong they are. Gives them a sparkle check.
The night before the real thing, the mission briefing delivered the way you'd announce a trip to the park: "Tomorrow morning you get a go on the chair. Teddy can come and watch." Casual. One day's notice. Not enough time to overthink it; every reason to look forward to it.
The ride
Here is the thing nobody tells small children about the dentist: the chair is a ride. It goes up. It goes down. It leans back like a spaceship, and there's a light like a headlamp, and you get a go on it — just you, while everyone watches.
Poppy walked in on her own two feet, holding her mum's hand, teddy under one arm. The dentist counted her teeth out loud while she tracked the numbers on her fingers. Her teeth passed the sparkle check "with flying colours" official verdict. And at the end there was a sticker with a superhero tooth on it, which she had earned, which is a completely different thing from being given one.
Total time in the chair: about the length of one song. She asked if she could have another go on the ride. Round one: won.
Monday morning, the playground
This is the part no parent sees coming. By Monday, the whole class had heard about it: the chair that flies, the headlamp, the crocodile strength verdict, the badge. "I know how many teeth my mum has," Poppy announced, with the confidence of a girl holding classified information.
That's the real trick of the Dentist Game, a check-up that ends as a story worth telling. Children don't retell things that were "fine". They retell adventures. And six other parents in that playground now have children asking when they get a go on the flying chair.
Our side of the game
Children's care here is led by Dr Natasha Davé — a dentist with specialty paediatric experience, including years at Birmingham Dental Hospital and Birmingham Children's Hospital — and her rules of play never change: no child is rushed, and nothing happens without their say so.
- First visits are short on purpose — the ride, the count, the sticker, home. The only goal of round one is that they ask to come back.
- Tell, show, do — everything explained in child-sized words and shown first. No surprise levels.
- For the genuinely anxious, gentle inhalation sedation — a soft mask, a calm floaty feeling, fully awake and chatting — from a clinician with over a decade of calming nervous little players.
- And there are superhero teeth around the practice who take the game extremely seriously.
The second drive
A few visits later, the same back seat tells the whole story. Teddy's been demoted to the seat beside her — both hands are busy with the toy dentist in her little white coat, who "needs to watch". Poppy is asking if it's dentist day yet, and narrating the level she knows by heart: the chair goes up, the teeth get counted, there's a sticker in it if you're good. There usually is.
No bribes. No "be brave". Just a game that turned into a story she wanted to tell and, sixty years from now, an adult who books her check-up without a second thought, because the dentist was always somewhere exciting.
Ready to start the game? Book your child's appointment at Sutton Dental Care on 0121 354 7570 or at suttondentalcare.co.uk tell us they're nervous when you book, and we'll take it from there. We'll bring the stickers.
Sutton Dental Care — Aesthetics · Implants · Excellence. Poppy is a composite of the little patients we meet every week. Paediatric care is provided by our registered clinical team; suitability for any treatment, including sedation, is confirmed at your child's appointment.