A good experience at a child’s first trip to the dentist is vitally important in shaping their future behavior at dental visits. When a child’s first time at a dental office is to relieve the pain of a toothache, that can greatly affect their future perceptions of the dentist and produce fear and behavior management issues. Therefore, it is important to make the first appointment for a cleaning and checkup around the child’s third birthday. The days leading up to the first visit should be filled with stories about the fun, exciting trip to the dentist that is coming up. If a parent has a fear of the dentist, they should be careful to not project that fear on to the child. Kids are more perceptive than you think. The parents need to make sure that big brother doesn’t fill the patient with needless horror stories. And they shouldn’t ever say things like “If you don’t behave, I’m going to take you to the dentist.” At our office, we try to make every trip to the dentist a fun adventure with cartoons playing on TV’s in the ceiling, good tasting toothpastes and fluorides, and trips to the treasure chest afterwards. Having a pleasant experience at the first dental will help alleviate apprehension at future dental appointments.