So...I feel like Worst Mom Ever but today I found out that my little girl has a number of cavities between her molars and one is quite bad. So yay for the first xrays. Boo for the result. But it is what it is, right? I'm kicking myself very much for not flossing her teeth more often. (Seriously, floss those molars!!) DH reminded me that even DD's dentist's kid needed to have cavities filled like this. Our options were either the traditional sitting in a chair 4 times for 45 mins each (with shots) or general at the hospital in one go. We are going to the hospital.
Has anyone else had to do this with their kid? What to expect? I'm actually glad it will be at the hosptial's pediatric unit so a pediatric anesthesiologist will be overseeing DD's care. The dentist (for whom the practice is named, someone I had not met til today) reassured me that in his 36 years of doing this, nobody's ever had a problem. They were very kind toward me when they realized how upset I was. I was trying not to scare DD, but I feel really bad about this.
She sees her pediatrician tomorrow for her surgical clearance, and we've been told what she can/can't eat and when. I will be sitting with her in the OR til she's asleep and she will wake back up with DH and I there next to her.
Very good tips, thank you.
Avoiding dentist phobia is a reason we are going this route. She has come a long way from being a screaming 10 month old (her first problem tooth) to now and we don't want to make her afraid. I also scheduled it on a non-school day with a day to hang out and be chill before she goes back to school, just in case. Her older sister has bad teeth, so it's somewhat genetic. Sigh.
We just had this with my son and he did very well. He wasn't cranky coming out, never actually went all the way under during the procedure, and slept most of the afternoon after. The beauty was that he didn't remember a thing and so has absolutely no dentist related trauma.
Never had the teeth done but my oldest had tubes put in. He was pretty cranky for the 1st hour afterward but nothing different after that. I think she will be fine. May want to bring a lovey, a blankey or a stuffed animal, along to comfort.
My son has had that before but they did it at his dentist office. The anesthesialogist came to his clinic. They gave him something to drink to make him sleepy while I was holding him. He then fell asleep and woke up when I was in the room he was groggy and a little cranky but not too bad. If you are both there with her when she wakes up she shoud be fine. I would sugest someone riding in the back seat with her on the way home if you can. That's what was the hardest for him. But I was by myself with him.
We've had dental work done on both kids with general anesthesia. The boy had tubes put in his ears with just gas, not IV drugs. He was a screaming banshee when he came out from the gas. It was still on his breath 30 minutes later and he was still screaming. They said that's how most kids come out of gas anesthesia.
With the IV meds they go to sleep like anyone having general surgery. They sit there watching TV until it's time to go back, they go in and get a little gas to knock them out (not totally sure about how much and your dentist might just do the IV with them awake). Then they go to sleep and wake up totally in an hour or less with new teeth. The dentist can do all the work in a few minutes with them asleep. It's so much easier than any other way and we will never have any dental work done on the kids without them being asleep with general anesthesia.
Go for it, it's so stinkin easy on them, hard on us but easy on them. They wake up ready to go eat and play for hours since they're so rested. It's very easy on them.
To address the decay, she probably just has weaker enamel. All food is a problem with teeth to a point. Not just sugar and other foods. All foods can cause decay if the enamel is weaker.
I have weak enamel, my daughter got weak enamel from her dad and from me. All her kids have had various amounts of dental work done from nothing more than a good cleaning up to having a bunch of silver teeth. She treated all of them the same, they all ate the same foods, they even went to live with different people after a while and they still had varying degrees of dental issues within those homes too.
So don't beat yourself up, she would have gotten the cavities most likely anyway.
There are a few differently levels of how deep you go out under anesthesia - This one is *not* deep, heavy anesthesia - it's a twilight sleep. Enough for her to be out - but she'll come back quickly. Did you ever get your wisdom teeth out under twilight? You come out disoriented (I was crying one of the times) and very foggy. But it passes very quickly.
Expect she'll be disoriented and maybe weepy, maybe cranky - but it's all just her brain clearing the fog. As long as you're there to hold her afterwards and say, lightly, "OK honey - you are all better now and I'm here" it'll be just fine.
