What We’re Learning From Generation Z
Our kids have lots to teach us about our approach to their dental care - they just don’t know it!
Move over, Millennials, because Generation Z is coming of age – and they’re already influencing how organisations operate, from retail through to education and healthcare. Unlike any other group before them, Generation Z, born around 1998 onwards, have never known life without smartphones and social media.
Their connectedness has given them a new understanding of themselves, their health and their future. It’s especially important for children’s healthcare providers to embrace this, putting systems in place that appeal to Generation Z as they gradually move towards parenthood.
Generation Z was programmed to be social.
Being continually connected means that Gen Z-ers quickly switch between work and play. Happy Kids Dental has taken this theory and run with it, making playtime central to its day-to-day practice. Age-zoned play areas, packed with toys, consoles and iPads, help create a fun and relaxing environment that feeds into the 15 brightly coloured, high-tech treatment rooms. The paediatric team, meanwhile, is always coming up with creative ways to help kids and teens establish the right habits when it comes to oral health – such as encouraging them to send in videos of their tooth-brushing technique a week after their first appointment.
Generation Z is concerned about its future.
Statistics show that Gen Z-ers are eschewing the smoking, drinking, late-night culture of their hedonistic parents in favour of a fitter, healthier outlook. They’re inherently more cautious and sensible, too – perhaps as a result of growing up in an increasingly uncertain world. From education to health, Gen Z isn’t prepared to take risks they might not be able to afford to fix in later life – which makes them even more receptive to the latest research on sugar addiction, child tooth decay, and the link between oral health and general health. Happy Kids Dental’s approach aims to harness that health-conscious attitude.
Generation Z likes being in control.
Gen Z-ers are much more likely than their predecessors to take the opportunity to learn something for themselves with the tools they have at their disposal, before risking the time or the money asking someone else. Working with that theory, Happy Kids Dental aims to gives its young patients complete control over their oral health. Using kid-friendly language and state-of-the-art technology, the paediatric team involves children in every aspect of their dental care – taking away the fear, and leaving only the fun. This creates safe, happy and positive associations with the dentist, as well as invaluable knowledge about oral health, that remains with them into adulthood.
Want to take the Gen Z approach to your children’s dental health? Take a tour of our exclusively paediatric dental practice in central London, and find out how we’re changing perceptions about children’s dentistry.