Services

Dr. Darrow and Dr. Morris offer comprehensive pediatric dentistry in Los Gatos, CA for children and young adults. Not only do we strive to keep your child's mouth as healthy as possible, we also try to help your child establish a lifelong positive attitude towards dentistry. We are fortunate to have a wonderful staff who are all naturals when it comes to interacting with children.

Prevention

We are proud to employ registered dental hygienists who clean your child's teeth and review prevention with you and your child. At each checkup appointment we give parents a "report card" of your child's oral hygiene, which shows areas that need to be better cleaned.

Tailoring specifically to you child's age and ability, we will review brushing and flossing, diet, and fluoride use. We promote the use of sealants when appropriate and we encourage regular dental checkups to monitor your child's oral growth and development.

Behavior Management

Dr. Darrow and Dr. Morris never forget that attached to each tooth is a child. We are very aware that at the same time we are doing a filling we are also molding your child's lifelong attitude towards dentistry. We try to make the visit as positive and enjoyable as we can. Dr. Darrow and Dr. Morris use confidence building techniques such as positive reinforcement, "tell-show-do," and desensitization.

Although many children do fine (or even better) with a parent in the reception room, we do allow parents to accompany their child into the operatory. If we feel that having a parent present is hindering the appointment we may ask you to wait in the reception room.

Sedation & Hospital Dentistry

Occasionally a child may be very apprehensive, be very young or have a lot of dental needs. These are indications for sedation of some form. The various levels of sedation that we offer are as follows:

Nitrous Oxide: "laughing gas" is breathed in though a nose mask and relaxes your child; an extremely safe way to treat the slightly apprehensive child or to perform longer procedure

Conscious Sedation: Dr. Darrow and Dr. Morris received extra training to safely administer conscious sedation; in this procedure a liquid sedative is given by mouth 30 to 60 minutes before the appointment; your child remains awake but is very relaxed, allowing us to get a lot of treatment done on a very apprehensive child

General anesthesia: your child is completely asleep; an anesthesiologist administers the medication; this is offered in a hospital setting or we can make arrangements for an anesthesiologist to come to our office with portable equipment; used on uncooperative or medically compromised children.

Dental Procedures

Dr. Darrow and Dr. Morris stay current in the world of pediatric dentistry. We offer both silver amalgam and white "bonded" fillings. We will be happy to discuss with you the advantages and disadvantages of both. Occasionally teeth require more extensive procedures that require nerve treatments and crowns. In cases where teeth are extracted we always pay careful consideration to the maintenance of space for permanent teeth. We also treat gum and oral diseases and perform limited orthodontics.

Children with Disabilities

Dr. Darrow and Dr. Morris enjoy seeing children with disabilities and will tailor each visit to best suit your child's needs. Please let us know in advance if there is anything specific we should know about your child (e.g. some children are very scared of loud noises, others have a fear of people in white coats.) Many children with disabilities can be treated in an office setting. However, we do offer treatment in a hospital setting if needed.

Emergency care

If your child has a dental emergency after hours call our office at 356-9101 and the answering service will page Dr. Darrow, Dr. Morris or one of our on-call pediatric dental colleagues.