Many pediatric treatments don't fail due to technique.
They fail because the child's neurodevelopment is not ready to sustain the intervention, even if the child "allows it" and the planning is correct.
- Treatments that don't progress
- Seemingly cooperative, but unstable children
- Accumulated stress in consultations
- Inconsistent results
Change: from managing behavior to understanding neurodevelopment
-
Current neuroscience shows that cooperation, tolerance, and clinical adaptation depend on the degree of brain maturation, not on the child's obedience.
So, always being calm, having patience, and explaining things multiple times is not always the answer to problems in the progress of treatments or the patient's behavior.
-
🧠 Neurodevelopment
- Sleep, breathing, chewing, and the brain
🛡 Clinical safety
- Stress, HPA axis, and allostatic load
🔍 Early detection
- Warning signs in consultation
🧰 Clinical strategies
- Environments, language, and predictability
- Sleep, breathing, chewing, and the brain
The dentist is a key player in infant neurodevelopment.
A dental consultation is one of the few settings where early signs of sleep, breathing, attention, and sensory regulation disorders can be detected.
Is this course for you?
-
Who this course IS for
✔ For dentists looking for better results
✔ For those who treat children (not just “difficult” ones) -
Who this course is NOT for
❌ It is not a traditional behavioral management course
❌ It is not clinical psychology
Receive Practical Tools
-
🧠 SADE Protocol
-
🗣️Declarative language
-
🕰️Predictability and closure
-
🤝 Sensory adaptation of the consulting room
It's not psychology. It's neuroscience applied to clinical practice.
This course helps you name what you are already seeing. Understanding the child's brain allows you to intervene better and make treatment possible.
The Child's Brain in the Dental Office
The Child's Brain in the Dental Office
- 3 months of access
- Engraved
- Certificate
Understanding child neurodevelopment changes the way you provide care...and the results you get.
Couldn't load pickup availability
What will you learn?
Detailed Syllabus
BEHAVIOR REGULATION: Learn about the direct relationship between sleep and behavior regulation in dental visits
I. Biological factors modulating behavior: Sleep, Orofacial function (chewing), habits, diet
II. Gut-brain axis and its influence on behavior.
FOUNDATIONS FROM COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE: Learn to change the paradigm from "behavior management" to "neuro-regulation," understanding the anatomy of fear in pediatric patients.
I. Paradigm Shift: Historical Evolution from Operant Conditioning and Behaviorist Psychology to Affective Neuroscience.
- A. The oral cavity as a sensorimotor extension of the central nervous system, not an isolated entity.
- B. The consulting room as a "neurodevelopmental laboratory": Identification and warning signs for detecting neurodevelopmental disorders.
II. Anatomy of Fear and the Famous "Amygdala Hijack"
- A. The amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuit: Why reason fails when fear is activated and how healthcare professionals can intervene to co-regulate and build trust with the child.
- B. The thalamo-amygdalar pathway: Rapid and preconscious processing of sensory threats (sharp noises, smells).
- C. Explanation of why logical verbal interventions fail under acute stress due to the immaturity of the fronto-amygdalar connection in children.
III. The Hidden Cost of Stress
- A. HPA Axis and Cortisol: Impact on immune suppression.
- B. Neurotoxicity: Effects of toxic stress on the hippocampus and memory.
THE DENTIST AS A HEALTH SENTINEL (sleep and development): Learn to identify severe neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders that manifest in the dental office.
I. Respiratory and sleep disorders.
II. Activity and attention disorders.
III. Behavioral disorders: Oppositional defiant, oppositional defiant, and strong-willed children.
IV. Developmental milestone monitoring:
A. Red flags in behavior: Orofacial hypotonia, absence of social smiles (ASD) or
delays in expressive language.
NEURO-REGULATION TOOLBOX (practical): Learn to implement immediate strategies to reduce allostatic load (accumulated wear and tear on the body due to repeated and prolonged exposure to stress) in a clinical setting.
I. SADE Protocol (Sensory Adapted Dental Environment)
- A. Environmental modification.
- B. Clinical evidence.
II. The power of declarative language.
- A. Difference between imperative ("Open your mouth," threatening autonomy) and declarative ("I can barely see your teeth, and my mirror needs more space," inviting curiosity).
- B. Linguistic transformation exercises to reduce resistance and activate the prefrontal cortex.
III. Predictability and closure
- A. Use of visual schedules (explanatory pictograms) to reduce uncertainty and anxiety.
- B. Neurobiological reinterpretation of "tell-show-do" as gradual explanation.
IV. Conclusions, observations, and current challenges.
Speakers: Claudia Restrepo Serna and Carlos López
Dr. Claudia Restrepo Serna, a pediatric dentist from CES University and with a PhD in Neuroscience, brings a special guest for this course: Dr. Carlos López Castillo.
Carlos is a Psychologist and Clinical Neuropsychologist from CES University, specializing in children and adolescents.
He has participated in scientific publications and is a renowned professor in the city of Medellín - Colombia.
This duo wonderfully combines dentistry, neuroscience, and psychology
FEBRUARY 27
The Child's Brain in the Dental Office
This is not just another "behavior management" course based on experience. It is a training with scientific and medical foundations that allows you to go beyond achieving a calm child: it teaches you to understand, regulate, and accompany the nervous system of the pediatric patient.