When would you refer my child to the Children’s Medical Center of Columbus?

At Smile Wright Dental, we provide a comprehensive list of services for our patients. It is our top priority that your child receives the best oral health care possible, and we do everything we can to achieve that in our office. Sometimes, providing the best care means referring you to another doctor that can treat a medical problem that we are not equipped to treat. Children’s Medical Center of Columbus is one of the best children’s hospitals in the country, and you can rest assured you will receive excellent care.

What services does the Children’s Medical Center of Columbus offer?

In addition to regular dental services, Children’s Medical Center of Columbus offers emergency dentistry and a dental operating room. They treat over 290,000 patients per year at the hospital. If your child has suffered a severe oral injury or has experienced another significant emergency, the Children’s Medical Center of Columbus may be the best choice for treatment. In their dental surgical center, the dentists can perform the following procedures:

• Impacted tooth and tooth exposure – an impacted tooth is a tooth that fails to grow all the way through the gums. Impacted wisdom teeth and impacted cuspid teeth are common. For impacted wisdom teeth, the most common treatment is surgical extraction.
• Labial or lingual frenectomies – a frenectomy is a surgical procedure that is performed to release the frenum, which is the connective muscle between two tissues. There are two types of frenectomies that are commonly performed. A labial frenectomy released the connection between a patient’s lips and gums. This type of procedure is recommended to help with orthodontic treatment if necessary or to help with the fitting of dentures. A lingual frenectomy, commonly known as a tongue-tie release, is performed on the connective tissue under the tongue. It is often performed on infants to assist in breastfeeding and on toddlers or young children who have speech problems because of limited movement due to their frenum.
• Facial trauma surgery – in the unfortunate event of your child sustaining facial trauma, surgery may be required. Facial trauma refers to injuries sustained to the bone, teeth, skin, gums, and other soft tissues of the face. Immediate treatment of these types of injuries is recommended.
• Bone grafting – although rare for patients, there are some scenarios that may require bone grafting surgery, including birth defects, severe trauma, or removal of a tumor. Bone grafting is a form of reconstructive surgery.

In addition to dental services, the Children’s Medical Center of Columbus offers a wide range of other services. At Smile Wright Dental, we care bout the overall health of your child, and while dentistry is our specialty, we know that having a doctor you and your family can rely on for all health issues is important. Dr. Wright can refer you to a primary care physician or any kind of specialist if necessary.

Contact us today to discuss referral options.