HOURS: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Homewood Pediatric Dentistry owner and pediatric dentist Dr. Caitlin Reaves is passionate about forming positive, long-term relationships with patients and their families.
“When kids and their parents know and trust their dentist, they feel comfortable discussing problems or hurdles that are interfering with good oral hygiene or nutrition,” Dr. Reaves says. “This information is crucial to developing a treatment plan that will work best for a child, but also long-term, good oral health habits that a family can successfully incorporate into their daily lives.”
Her goal at Homewood Pediatric Dentistry, which she opened in March 2022, is to provide a dental home where children can grow from birth to high school graduation with excellent routine, preventative and emergency dental care.
The office was designed to feel comfortable, fun and engaging for children with TVs on the ceilings, books and toys in the lobby and seating for parents in the treatment rooms.
While the office is new, the team members are not new to their respective roles, each with more than 10 years of experience.
“Everyone here loves children, and pediatric dentistry is our avenue to be able to work with them,” Dr. Reaves says. “We see the child first and then the teeth.” They try to establish a rapport with each patient so they can understand and respect the child’s individual personality, medical history and current oral health status, then tailor their approach to that child.
They also work to encourage children to care about their own dental health in age-appropriate steps at each visit.
“Kids are so moldable and fun,” Dr. Reaves says. “If I can help them learn how to make good decisions on their own, then we have a better chance to get good long-term outcomes.”
When asked what makes her good at working with kids, Dr. Reaves attributes it to her personality. “I enjoy interacting with children. If I were not a dentist, I would be a teacher,” she says. “I am sincere and compassionate, and I think that all comes across to both parents and kids. We don’t rush through appointments so the child can have a positive experience and parents can have the information they need to feel confident about their child’s oral health.”
Dr. Reaves grew up in Auburn and graduated from the UAB School of Dentistry in 2012. She worked for the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona for two years as a general dentist gaining extensive experience in public health, emergency dentistry, trauma dentistry, oral surgery and endodontics.
“I treated patients of all ages and all stages of oral disease,” Dr. Reaves says. “Because we had patients’ entire dental records, I was able to see how dental treatment that was done on patients as children turned out decades later. I have carried that public health experience and the importance of lifetime perspective for patient care with me since then.”
Dr. Reaves went on to complete apediatric dentistry residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2016.During that time, she trained in dental care for special needs patients, the assessment and treatment of growth and development problems, different types of sedation and hospital-based dental treatment with patients under general anesthesia.
Dr. Reaves stayed in South Carolina for more than four years in a large pediatric dental private practice and served on the board for the South Carolina Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
In the fall of 2020, Dr. Reaves decided it was time to open her own small, patient-oriented office and combine the best wisdom from her public health and private practice experiences.
Homewood is a coming home for Dr. Reaves and her husband, who met in a downtown Homewood shop in 2010. While there have been many changes to Homewood since then, it still provides the community she desired for her practice.
“I don’t want to be a dentist who does not know my patients and their families,” she says. “I don’t think you get good outcomes that way, but also that’s no fun. I want to see families in the grocery store and at the ballpark where kids run up and show me their loose tooth.
“A lot of healthcare and medicine now feels like a separate world, very corporate, not personal and rushed. I believe young families are searching for something different.
“I could not have opened a solo practice any earlier in my career nor would I have wanted to. Each of the pieces along the way have helped shape me into the provider I am today, and added tools to my toolbox.”
Homewood Pediatric Dentistry emphasizes preventive services such as nutritional education, age appropriate oral hygiene habits and technique recommendations, fluoride application, and sealant placement. They offer a wide range of children’s dental services, including exams, cleanings, radiographs, fillings, white crowns, silver crowns, extractions and space maintainers. When necessary they also offer sedation options including: nitrous oxide (laughing gas), in-office IV sedation with a board-certified medical anesthesiologist and dental treatment under general anesthesia at Children’s of Alabama Hospital. If a patient needs another type of specialty care — such as braces, root canal or wisdom teeth removal — her office will coordinate with the appropriate specialist so the patient receives the best care possible.
Dr. Reaves is also passionate about raising community awareness regarding the importance of dental health to a child’s overall health — a connection that she says is not properly appreciated in the United States.
“Cavities, or tooth decay, is the most common chronic childhood health problem in the U.S.,” she says. “Chronic pain has been shown to affect brain development, and dental pain causes problems with behavior, sleep, eating, speech and learning. It is hard to make good grades if you have a toothache preventing you from concentrating in class. It is hard to get proper sleep with a toothache keeping you awake.”
According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the best time to start taking your child to the dentist is by their 1st birthday. While not many teeth are present at this visit, there can be cavities or pre-cavities starting even this young, and early intervention allows for more conservative treatment options. The first visits also give parents opportunities to learn and ask questions.
“We, as a society, think of oral hygiene as being intuitive, but it is truly the most complex daily self-care skill we perform. Teaching that skill to a child is quite challenging.”
She also notes that cavities affect all kids, but she has noticed a large uptick in significant decay for children whose parents work in careers at risk for “high caregiver fatigue” including doctors, nurses and teachers.
Dr. Reaves is board-certified by the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and a member of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. She is also a winner of the Pugh Award, which is an elite recognition given only to pediatric dentists who score in the top 3% on the written board exam.
Passionate about community outreach and the importance of oral health education, she has taught parent workshops at preschools and lectured to the UAB pediatric medicine residents about pediatric oral health. She is happy to present at any local school, PTO or business that wants their members to learn more about pediatric oral health.
Over the years, Dr. Reaves and her husband would periodically talk about Homewood and what it would be like to return. They are grateful that those conversations have now turned into reality for them and their young children: Henry, 5; Lucy, 3; and their “surcee baby,” who is due soon.
