Dr. Chris Baker, pediatric dentistry & orthodontics

Through pediatric dental and orthodontic care, you can change your child’s life. Enjoy the fulfillment of growing with and contributing significantly to your child, as an active participant in care. How would you feel seeing your children grow to young adulthood, never having had a cavity? Most of the children in our practice never have decay. How incredible to grow up without fillings and to a lifetime free of broken fillings, crowns and root canal treatment and extractions!

How would you feel seeing your child love going to the dentist? Many parents in this practice report their children can hardly wait for their next visit!

And how would you feel knowing your child’s smile and even entire face is beautiful throughout those important school-age years when a child’s self-consciousness is high and the teasing from other children frequent? Your child smiles fully without feeling self-conscious. Wouldn’t that feel great?

That’s what Doyle & Baker is all about. All of us here are dedicated to making your dreams & desires come true. For more than 40 years we’ve done it every day! Your child can be ahead of state-of-the-art, enjoy a lifetime free of dental problems, and you and your child can have fun in the prevention process.

Stay with your child while he or she is visiting the dentist -- we insist!

Stay with your child for all visits- we insist! Help yourself to gourmet coffee, regular or decaf, sodas and spring water, anytime. Your child gets 4 prevention visits every year!   Your child can have a good chance of graduating from college, never having needed a dental filling in permanent teeth - and with a great prospect of never ever needing one. Enjoy not waiting to be seen for your appointment. Have the convenience of flexible morning and after-school appointments, as well as many school holidays.

Dr. Chris Baker, RN, DMD

  R.N., Houston, 1969
  D.M.D., Univ of Kentucky, 1979
  Pediatric dentistry specialty, Univ. of Connecticut, 1985
  Orthodontic fellowship, Univ. of Connecticut, 1986

Before dental school, as a registered nurse, Dr. Chris was fortunate to have been involved in the American Heart Association’s early development of CPR training. After moving to Lexington to go to UK’s dental school, she worked with Dr. Bennett McWhorter and others to develop the Heart Association CPR training in Kentucky.

The CPR training manual Dr. Chris wrote for Kentucky Heart Association in l979 has been updated several times andused nationally as the American Heart Association manual ever since. The thousands of Kentucky people Dr. Chris trained in CPR continue to train many thousands more.

In l980 with both her nursing background, and Doctorate in Dental Medicine, she was asked to accept a faculty appointment at UK College of Dentistry, to lead Special Patient Care training for dental students and residents. This part of their education helped Kentucky’s future dentists be better able to treat patients with special management needs, such as physically, mentally and emotionally handicapped patients.

While in pediatric dentistry training at University of Connecticut, then during her tenure as a full-time faculty member there, Dr. Chris studied and worked closely with the research scientists studying the disease of caries (decay). These professors are some of the world’s experts in the fields of cariology and fluorides. The strong preventive nature of our practice utilizes current cutting-edge science and technology to help the parents and patients prevent dental diseases.

Ten years of nursing experience helped create extraordinary insights for Dr. Chris as to the significance of interpersonal relations and support in potentially stressful healthcare situations. Since l985, as a specialist in pediatric dentistry, she has concentrated on the pioneering and teaching of emotional support of the child patient and his/her parents. This places Dr. Chris in a unique position, having the child’s family/parent(s) present during all visits.

Her years of ICU, CCU, and ER nursing also gave her an unusually good understanding of the use and hazards of sedation and general anesthesia, and further stimulated her to develop safe, high quality treatment procedures without the use of systemic drugs. Dr. Baker has developed a unique approach to the treatment of the pediatric dental patient. It is the safest, with none of the risks of sedation or general anesthesia. It is the most emotionally reassuring treatment in use today. Because the parent is always with the child, no feeling of abandonment is present.

Many lives have been improved by Dr. Chris’s compassion and strength in relationship development. Her extensive knowledge of child behavior, parenting and child management are elements which became integrated into her teaching while she was on faculty at the University of Connecticut, and as a result, the dentists who trained in their specialty with Dr. Baker are successfully using her methods. In the US today, there are only a small number of specialists in pediatric dentistry offering drug-free, supportive, parents-always-present approach to dental treatment of the child patient.

After years spent practicing with and learning from Dr. Doyle, Dr. Chris has grown sure that the excellence she seeks in dentistry can only be realized when prevention is the basis for every decision made. Her practice philosophy is one of health and prevention with emphasis on orthodontic treatment for the pre-school and school-age child which improves the growth of the entire craniofacial system and prevents orthopedic and orthodontic problems. She is the current Vice President and a board member of the American Orthodontic Society.

Dr. Chris's goal for each child patient is to begin a lifetime of dental health without need for a lifetime of dental restorative care.