A special note from Dr. Konys for our pediatric patients

As the father of five children, I completely understand the concern that you might have regarding your child’s upcoming surgery. Thus, I can assure you that I will treat your child the way I would want my child treated. We successfully treat hundreds of children each year, and we are proud of the care that we give each and every one.

Unless your child has an acute oral surgery emergency, we like to have you come in for a quick consultation before scheduling any procedures. This approach has many advantages. First, it allows you and your child the opportunity to see our office, meet our staff, ask questions, and just check the place out. It also allows us to identify the exact needs of your child, determine the urgency of the procedure, and assess your child’s apprehension level before scheduling an appointment.

We like to keep the consultation light and friendly. So if you have specific questions about the proposed procedure, or you would like a detailed explanation, please feel free to give me a call. I am more than happy to speak to you privately.

We generally perform most of our surgeries with flavored laughing gas (bubble gum, grape, strawberry, and orange) and local anesthesia. In a child, the laughing gas acts by calming them. It does not put them to sleep. But it can act as an analgesic, and thus, help make the procedure painless. Because we use topical anesthesia to “numb” the gum tissue, the injection is painless.

Every child chooses the TV show that they want to watch during the procedure. (I have become a big fan of Sponge Bob).

Finally, as a surgeon, I truly believe that no parent should ever have to witness a surgical procedure being done on their child. Thus, I ask that you do not request to be present in the room while your child is being treated. In order for us to perform the procedure successfully, we need to be able to focus all of our attention on your child. Experience has shown that a parent in the room creates unnecessary stress on the child, the parent, and the surgeon. In addition, it detracts from our ability to give one hundred percent of our attention to your child.

If a child is having a crummy day, we will not force the issue. We can easily reschedule the procedure for another day. Again, I will treat your child the way I would want my child treated.