General Anesthetic for 6yr old dental work, advice please?

Nicki

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies, i appreciate medical advice shouldn't be given i was just looking for peoples experiences and any alternitives that have been offered. I know deep down that it will be kinder in the long run just that it is very scary to give your child over for something which has any risk involved.
I know having that many bad teeth sounds bad and i feel awful for it but he has always had his teeth cleaned for him and i never suspected that there was that much of a problem. I knew one had a hole but 8! I was totally shocked although i suspect they are taking any out that have any sort of hole at all so we can have a clean slate.
My older son has had 2 teeth out and 1 filling but he is nearly 9 so i never expected this as i've treated them both the same.

Without wishing this to come across as a criticism, have you discussed with your dentist why your children have such bad tooth decay and whether you can do anything to stop it? 10 extractions and 1 filling between 2 children still on their milk teeth is surely exceptional? My kids are 11, 10 and 17 months, and have never had a filling, or extraction except following my daughter's accident where the teeth were damaged not decayed. Are there any flouride treatments which might help (my DD's dentist routinely coats all kid's teeth in flouride to help prevent problems) or are there dietary changes or changes in dental hygiene which could help?

I know nothing can change the situation which you are in now, but once you have the clean slate, it would be good to avoid any further problems if you can. For whatever reason, maybe just bad genes, the current regime obviously isn't working well for either child, so something needs to change, otherwise this will be a recurring problem for both children.

Owain_Moneysaver

I had lots of teeth pulled under 'gas' as a child.

It was lovely.

Quite a disappointment to grow up and find that dental problems couldn't be cured so easily :-(

mum2twinsx2

That is alot of teeth to have taken out at such a young age. Poor mite.

My d/d Lils had a tooth out under GA this time last year after cracking a tooth [lucky at the back] after incidient with a scooter. To be honest id much prefer her too be put to sleep, far less traumatic. Literally stuck gas mask on her face, she got to choose the red strawberry smell one. She was out within twenty mins max, in recovery for another twenty mins then we went home. She was groggy very grumpy afterwards but i would be... I think if she was awake it would have been horrid, she would never kept a mouth open.
Would you think he would really appreciate or the yanking drilling etc if he was awake?

esio_trot

I personally had 13 teeth taken out under GA, on two seperate occasions (8 and 5 teeth, aged 6 and 11) for overcrowding. I was out for about 5 minutes, so I'm told, and was out of the dental hospital, wanting to go back to school within an hour or two!

I do have a bit of a dental phobia now (I avoided the dentist for 10 years) but I can tell you it'd have been a hell of a lot worse if I was made to go back 7-13 times to have them out as and when. My main dislike of the dentist is injections in my mouth - nothing really to do with the GA.

The fiver (in 1990 - not sure what tooth fairy inflation would make it now :P) under my pillow made me forget about it pretty quickly!

bluenoseam

I had 7 out due to an abcess as a child under "gas" (in the old days when that was done at the dentist!) with zero problems. I hate to inform the OP, but here's the skinny on GA - you are never 100% sure if he will need to at some point go under for an operation, your fear, while i get it it's your kid and you're worried, is being hightened by the fear of a reaction which is statistically rare, even if the worst should happen and a reaction occurs, he will be dealt with IMMEDIATELY.

I could say the fear is irrational, ofcourse that's a strong way of putting it (and slightly incorrect too i guess!) - but ultimately you need to understand that in this case GA IS the only viable option, unless you want to put your child through 2-3 trips to the dentist to have the offending teeth removed. I can't put your fears at rest, i've had to be gassed for tooth extraction twice now - including '09 in hospital, it's safe as any operation can be, but ultimately it's always going to carry an element of risk, which is no different from anything else in life! Granted it's easy for me to say that, but i think that if you realise that you're worrying over a less than 1% factor you'll understand that it makes sense, he'll be under for an hour tops, wake up and granted be speaking like he's got a mouth full of gobstoppers but will be none the worse for wear the next day.

Oh and for the record, here's what i told the dentist at 25 when he wanted to take 5 teeth out maybe 6 (including wisdom teeth) - "erm don't think so mate, if you want to take 5 teeth you're knocking me the f*ck out so you can get that look aff yer face right now!" which prompted laughter from a second dentist whos opinion he'd sought, my Mum & a specialist cancer nurse! What can i say, i stood bold as brass for cancer treatment without a second thought - dentist, hell no, i'd rather get shot than get teeth pulled while i can hear what's going on!

meritaten

I cant give medical advice - tis against site rules, but I CAN say that my daughter had a very crowded mouthfull of teeth and I was advised that she should have five removed under GA. I was worried sick too - but it was actually kinder for her, everything was explained in simple terms for her and the staff allowed her to take her cuddly with her. she woke up a bit groggy and kept me entertained by singing loudly until the effects of the GA wore off, and she was allowed to go home with strict instructions from the staff only to eat ice cream, and jelly and soup and her 'favourite foods' for the next couple of days! she was fine hun - I was the basket case! her dentist explained that so many extractions were actually too traumatic for a child. Trust them hun!

betsie

My son had this done when he was 5 years old. We went to Guys hospital in London. Only there for the day. The dentist/doctor came to see if me and my OH were ok because we were blubing when they gave him the anesthetic he had the gown on and looked so vunerable. He was fine though. They would not recommend doing it unless it was necessary and the best option for him.

Janepig

Not that I'm suggesting for a minute that the OP goes against the dentists advice, but just to say that my DD was 6 when she had to have one of her incisors out because she banged it and it loosened. DH took her to the dentist and they said it needed to come out straight away, and they asked her (not DH!) did she want an injection and take it out there and then, or off to the hosp for a GA. She decided on an injection and took it like a lamb. The edge of worry was taken off it for me when DH rang and it turned out that she'd had the tooth out whilst wearing her brand new cheerleading dress!! I went loopy, although luckily there was no blood on it!! :rotfl:

It probably helps that both DD and DS have gone to the dentist every six months since their teeth came through (to the community dentist as we're not registered) and have no qualms about it. DD's had some flouride paste on her back teeth twice (I think) and they're also starting to do that in the school now too. The only time she caused any problem was when she had to have an x-ray the visit after the tooth came out to check for gum/jaw damage and she couldn't work out why we all kept leaving the room!!

Jxx

JBD

My daughter had 2 teeth removed under GA at the age of 8. She has special needs [autistic] and this was really the only safe way of doing it.
I was allowed to go to theatre with her and I stayed until she was asleep then I went back to the ward. She was in theatre for about an hour and came back fully awake. She did cry for a while but she's a bit of a baby at the best of times. We were allowed home after about an hour and she was fine after that.

brook2jack

lindseykim13 wrote: »

I know having that many bad teeth sounds bad and i feel awful for it but he has always had his teeth cleaned for him and i never suspected that there was that much of a problem. I knew one had a hole but 8! I was totally shocked although i suspect they are taking any out that have any sort of hole at all so we can have a clean slate.
My older son has had 2 teeth out and 1 filling but he is nearly 9 so i never expected this as i've treated them both the same.

The hospital will only take out teeth that have decay . Even small holes in baby teeth easily cause abcesses and they don't want to be repeating this in 6 months.

The positive thing you can do now for all your children is change their diet now. Their future dental health is in your hands only. Take advice about their diet, limit their sugar attacks to three a day, no sugary/ fruit drinks between meals and nothing to eat or drink an hour before bed or at night other than water/ plain milk.

You can make this big change now and your children will reap the benefit by never needing another filling or tooth out.

Most importantly keep regular checkups so that your dentist can give you the advice to stop future problems.