One of the greatest fears of parents today is that their child will get lost or, worse yet, be abducted. Indicative of this concern is the fact that to date, 34 states have implemented AMBER Alert systems that issue state-wide public alerts about missing children. As a dental professional offering Toothprints bite impressions, you play a pivotal role in providing a proven means of identifying children or, better yet, DNA and saliva samples for tracking them. Toothprints is a simple, cost-effective way of documenting a child’s unique tooth characteristics, tooth position within the arch and maxillomandibular jaw relationship – all important identifiers.

Toothprints is an arch-shaped thermoplastic wafer that you soften in hot water, then place on the patient’s lower arch. The child bites into the wafer for 50 seconds in the same manner as a bite registration taken for prosthetics or orthodontics. After allowing a 2-3 minute cool-down period in the plastic bag provided, Dr. Shulkin gives the patient’s parents the Toothprints bite impression to take home for safekeeping.

We Provide Our Patients a Service We Hope They Never Have to Use

A couple of dollars and a few minutes of chairtime is a small investment to make for the huge return of being able to assist authorities in tracking a missing child or making a positive identification.

Few children have fingerprints taken and the successful fight against tooth decay has left many children with no cavities and few dental records. Toothprints provides a unique record that can give parents greater peace of mind.