Dr. Namrata Soni is a dentist who is specialized in the field of aesthetic dentistry. With more than 10 years of experience in this field, she has been able to bring brighter smiles to the faces of her patients. She is a member of the Indian Dental Association and Dental Council of India.
Although she professionally practices as a dentist, Dr. Namrata Soni has made use of Instagram to post videos related to parenting tips.
The dentist is also an active parenting blogger who has her dedicated share of followers on Instagram due to her engaging and valuable content.
In her conversation with Icy Tales, Dr, Namrata Soni spoke about her profession, ways to deal with dental fear along with some inputs on parenting.
Q) What is it like to be an aesthetic dentist?
Dr. Namrata Soni – Aesthetic dentistry is that part or that specialization of dentistry, which basically deals with enhancing people’s smile and their teeth. So obviously, apart from the technical skills that you need, you also need a lot of creativity and then a lot of information with details.
But it’s extremely rewarding because it’s amazing to see a patient get out of your chair and then look into the mirror and then just feel like, wow, you could look like this also. So I think it’s a lot of fun.
Q) When did you decide that you want to bring this parenting tips combination into your dentistry work as well?
Dr. Namrata Soni – Actually, I didn’t decide that but after being a mom and then just going through my entire pregnancy journey and above all, bringing up my child was really nice.
My daughter started eating on her own when she was one year old and she is screen-free right now; like she is not addicted to screen time.
My friends and the people around me have been just seeing me and then these people started approaching me for parenting bits of advice.
So I was sort of like a parenting counselor to a lot of my friends whenever they got pregnant or whenever they had issues with their kids.
So eventually these people pushed me and told me like why don’t you spread this to more people and why don’t you start a page on Instagram. So that’s how it started; I’ve not been taking it very seriously yet, but I probably should.
Q) The new generation of children is growing and developing very rapidly. Their minds are different, and they have so much knowledge right before their age. What do you have to say about this and how does it feel to be a parent of this generation of children?
Dr. Namrata Soni – I agree that this generation is growing extremely fast; it almost feels like we are learning so many skills from them. Their knowledge is so much more at such a younger age than what we used to have, back then. It is also very exciting and rewarding to see them grow up so quickly.
I think the proud moment that we gave to our parents was almost after two decades of their parenting journey but when we see our kids, they make us happy and proud at a young age itself. They are making us delighted about whatever we have catered to them in a matter of years, so it is very exciting.
But at the same time, it has its own challenges. Nowadays since they have so much access to resources and information at their fingertips, we have to be very careful of what they’re exposed to and what they are not.
At the same time, we also have to be on our toes and constantly learn with them. We need to have the willingness to upgrade with them and adapt to new parenting skills because I don’t think the traditional parenting method will work with this generation.
Q) What advice do you have for new parents to bring up their kids in a good atmosphere?
Dr. Namrata Soni- I think you should make sure that you dedicate a specific time, even if it’s very small all parents must ensure that there is at least some time during the day to spend one-to-one time with their child.
At this time, you just need to sit and listen to what your kid has to say; just ask them a few questions like how was your day, what went well and this needs to be completely uninterrupted.
You should not have people around you or think about what you have to do throughout the day or obviously spend time on your phone.
Even if that’s just 5 or 10 minutes before you sleep. It’s something that’s very important for your kid to feel attached to you. They feel secure and they know that there’s someone who they can fall back to.
Secondly, I think developing good habits and making a routine where we don’t only force them to have that routine, but also, we are living that same routine.
Lifestyle habits like good eating, meditation, practicing gratitude, and having proper sleep are very good as it also helps with the mental and physical development.
I really like the part where we celebrate every small success and achievement of our kids. This is very important for you as a parent to celebrate the small milestones in their journey.
Whether it is the first lap they’ve completed in their swimming or for the first time they fearlessly tried to jump in the swimming pool, though these are all very tiny things. But, if you tend to celebrate these small things in the smallest possible manner, it brings in a lot of positive encouragement to them.
Q) Many people have a fear of visiting a dentist. Being a dentist, what do you have to say about this?
Dr. Namrata Soni- I have to say dental fear is real. I think at least 75% of people have mild dental anxiety, for sure. And there are always going to be 10% of the people who are very scared of going to the dentist.
Not even catering to kids, I’m talking about adults because dentistry has evolved so much, that now we have so many techniques that make the dental experience extremely smooth.
We have nitrous sedation in our practice and also my clinic is the pioneer of happy dentistry in Pune. As dentists, we make sure we take extra efforts to make sure that the patient is very comfortable.
Majorly, this fear is something that we’ve carried forward because of either our childhood experience or someone who has told us about it. Dentistry is not fearful now; previously probably it was, but now it’s so much easier.
Q) Tell us one thing that you love about being a dentist.
Dr. Namrata Soni- Something that I really like after I’ve become a dentist is the continuous learning that this field has. In general, dentistry is evolving at such a fast rate, and reading and continuously upgrading yourself is so important. I think that’s my favorite part that I learn every single day.
Namrata Soni aims to educate more people on parenting and dentistry. She is happy to balance between the two and aims to grow more in both fields.
Check out the whole conversation with Dr. Namrata Soni on our YouTube Channel.
Last Updated on by Himani Rawat
