Did you know that you don't have to wait until your kids need braces to spend thousands of dollars on their teeth? Ethan is teaching us new things every day!
Ethan had a cleaning today with his new dentist. He was a champ. The boy went in for the cleaning portion ALL BY HIMSELF! This office prefers it that way if the child is ready. I hadn't told about that part because I figured it would freak him out. (It probably would have.) But as soon as the hygenist saw his Cars T-shirt and told him that she had Lightning McQueen toothbrushes, he was off. Mom or no mom. I did poke my head in a few minutes later, but the boy was chatting away. He was just fine.
The x-rays didn't go quite as well, but they got two. That's two more than last time!
After a LONG wait for the dentist, he came in to check Ethan's teeth. As expected, the boy has cavities. Plural. We were very aware of one (that we couldn't get the previous dentist to treat! ARGH!) and expected one or two more. But the boys mouth needs some serious work.
I had to check the treatment work-up to make sure I had my numbers right. Ethan needs five fillings. Bad, but not horrible. He also needs two pulpotomies. To avoid medical jargon, lets think of them as partial root-canals. Yes, I just said root-canals. My four year old will have two crowns. CROWNS.
And how do you do a root canal on a four year old who won't even let you get an x-ray? That's right, sedation. Full-on general anesthesia. At the hospital. In a surgery suite.
I'm kind of freaking out over here. I can handle just about anything in the medical world, but I have this thing about general anesthesia. I'm afraid of it. And I'm really afraid of how Ethan will do coming out of it.
We've told Ethan that the yucky spot on his front tooth needs to be fixed before it hurts. So the dentist will fix it while he's sleeping and he'll wake up with a new tooth. He's actually excited for a new tooth.
We're aiming for the surgery date in mid-February. (The pedi-dentist only books the suite once a month or so.) We have to pre-pay, so we may not make it, but we're hoping.
Anyone else have to put their young kid through general anesthesia? How did it go?
PS - I think I should probably mention that we take very good care of Ethan's teeth. I discussed with the dr why his teeth have so many issues. First, genetics. I have incredibly soft enamel that decays when you look at it funny. Ethan inherited it. Second, spacing. Ethan also has my teeny tiny mouth. I'm missing two full sets of teeth and still barely have room in there. Ethan's teeth are packed so tightly together that brushing is not as effective as it should be. We need to floss morning and night. And third, the gain weight diet. Remember all that whole milk/cream stuff that Ethan used to drink? He had to drink so much of it that he took a cup to bed with him. We knew it risked damaging his teeth, but didn't expect the other problems to compound the issue. We stopped doing that more than a year ago. Plus we have always been cautious about sticky foods and don't allow juice. We've done just about everything right. But what was started before has only gotten worse. At least we have the option of sedation and don't have to traumatize him.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Dental Adventures, Part 1
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9 comments:
oh, that sounds like a total nightmare. Abbie had four cavities taken care of (laughing gas) when she was 3 or 4. they wanted us to do IV Sedation and we refused. We just didn't have the $500 it was gonna cost, nor did we want to deal with it. So, we elected to TRY the Gas first.
It worked. Maybe your dentist would be willing to give that a go first? If it works you're only out $35ish dollars, instead of MUCH MUCH more.
Yea. The gas isn't really an option b/c of the pulpotomies. They have to open up his two teeth, essentially, and can't risk not being able to finish. So once he's under for those, we'll get the fillings done as well. Less trauma.
But apparently, as long as you do everything right, you can get your medical insurance to pay the hospital fees and the anesthesiology fees. So we're working on that. (And finding out if they have some pediatric dental coverage. That would be awesome!)
The cost of the dental work itself, without those additional fees, is still about twice our max. The pulpotomies and crowns add up fast!
make sure you get the authorization in writing before you have it done. We have only been successful on patients who present medical necessity and compelling reason why it can't be done in a traditional setting, like CP or Alzheimers. Hopefully your pediatric dentist is good at proving medical necessity.
Personally I think dental phobia should be enough but blue cross doesn't always agree
When I was about 6yrs old I had a broken arm that wasn't healing properly so the doctor had to go in and fix it. I remember having the laughing gas, falling asleep, crying when I woke up, and smelling a weird smell for a little while afterwards (not constantly, just occasionally). As far as how it really went or how I took it, maybe you could talk to my mom about that.
I need to go floss all of the sudden.
My vote was to just start pulling teeth but Mia doesn't think that's the right answer. ;)
What a drag...I'm so sorry for Ethan. He'll be great though! Trejan had to have tubes put in his ear and recently had a tube taken out under general anesthia. Trejan had a horrible problem when he was 18 months and had to have them in. They gave his vercept (so he wounldn't ever remember this happening) and that worsened it so much. He couldn't stop throwing up afterwards. I'm sure they won't do that to Ethan since he is older and if they do I wouldn't recommend it. When we recently had his tube taken out a couple months ago he was in and out so fast and was in no pain and ready to go back to school that same day. I'm positive that Ethan will do good. Get some books from the library to help him understand what might be happening. That worked great for us too. Best wishes and keep us posted on how he does!
Bryson's got Ethan beat. At his first dentist appointment he had eight cavities, yes, 8! That beat Parker's 5 and McKay's 4.
I would get a second opinion on the pulpectomies, though. I had a dentist that scared me to death with all the problems he found in both mine and the boys mouths. I even wound up having a partial crown (I forget what it's called)put on one of my teeth. All of it was totally unnecessary. I went to a guy in our ward that was a dentist and much more conservative in his treatment (like never giving a child the expensive fillings, duh, the teeth fall out before before it matters). He checked us out and we didn't have any more of the work done that he was recommending. 7 years later we're fine.
It's worth a second look by an older doctor. One that didn't just come out of medical school and wants to try all his fun new tools (that was my bad dentist's problem at least).
Ethan's front tooth will fall out in less than 2 years anyway. McKay knocked out one of his front teeth at 3 1/2 and he turned out fine. I say yank it before spending much money on it. Seriously.
Chris
i agree on the second opinion. i know its a pain in the heiney but it could be worth it, save the expensive stuff and trauma for the permanent teeth maybe? also, Mark just had general anesthesia and if done at the right hospital, it will be a breeze. mark was sleepy but just fine. you can read about our experience with surgery on the ol' blog. good luck! and please for the love of pete show us a picture of your sweet boys.
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