PDOT-Psychology supports young people whose lives have been affected by their dental and oral health, and are currently receiving treatment from Bart’s Oral Medicine, Paediatric Dental and Maxillofacial Surgical services. We also offer joint working for young people transitioning into adult services (16-18 years old). Our service extends to support parents and carers of young people with complex dental or oral health. 

Our aim is to provide a psychological pathway of care for young people, and their families, undertaking dental treatment for new service users at the beginning of their treatment, as well as service users at other points along the treatment process. 

The types of difficulties that we support children and young people with include:

• Mood or challenging behaviours, such as anxiety, which impact treatment.
• Appearance related distress and/or visible diversity as a result of dental and health, or associated treatments. 
• Treatment decision making for children and their parents/carers. 
• Challenges with adjustment. E.g., difficulties adjusting to dental treatment recommendations, such as changes in diet and lifestyle. 
• The impact of dental and/or oral needs, or associated treatments, on family systems.
• Trauma and vicarious trauma following facial and/or dental injury. 

In addition to supporting children and young people in their treatment journey, we also offer training, psychology trainee placements, supervision and consultation to other health professionals.

Treatment

We use the information you provide during your assessment through talking, questionnaires and observation, to help us understand your problems, when they started, and what maintains them. This helps us to build a treatment package tailored to suit your individual needs. Following this, we may recommend one of several different approaches including: 

• Psychoeducation
• Systematic Desensitisation
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Trauma –Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)
• Systemic Therapy
• Narrative Therapy
• Mindfulness
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Play Therapy

To speak with the Paediatric Dentistry Medical Secretary, please call: 020 3594 6133. Further information on teh Paediatric Dentistry Team can be found here: Paediatric Dentistry - Barts Health Dental Hospital