4 yr. old general anesthesia...do you prepare them?

[Saramomofmany]

My 4 year old(5 in April) has extensive dental work that needs to get done. The Pediatric dentist suggested getting it done under general anesthesia at the hospital. I was not for that at all...so she was totally fine with trying to do some of the work in the office with nitrous oxide and see how it went. Well it didn't go at all. My son was very nervous, and not even letting them keep thenitrous on his nose. So nothing got done, and it made me feel that the general anesthesia would probably be our only option since he isn't cooperating.

So, my question is, if you've had a child go under general anesthesia for dental work, did you do anything to prepare him/her ahead of time? From what I got out of it, the Dental people recommend not even telling your child or doing anything to prepare them for it. To me that seems not right. It's not like I'm going to tell him now(3 weeks ahead of time) and dwell on it for a long time, but I feel like at least the day of that I would want to explain a little something to him.

Thanks!!
Sara

[4evermom]

I had one dentist tell me not to tell ds before anything.
Yeah, great way to keep my child's trust.

But there is a balance that needs to be struck. Enough vague info to be prepared but not enough info to be scary.

I think I told ds right away when the decision was made that next time we'd do it differently (we'd tried conscious sedation first and he was 3 1/2). I explained we'd get up early one morning and the dentist would meet us at the hospital. They'd give him sleepy medicine and fix all his teeth while he was sleeping. Ds asked periodically when the appointment was. I reminded him the morning before the appointment that it was the next day. Didn't want to wait until night when anxiety levels are higher. I think I handled it the best way for my ds.

[mysticmomma]

Different situation. We ended up pulling her four front teeth in office with no sedation instead of trying extensive repairs. Anyway, she just had a tear duct fixed, and I told her what we'd be doing. You know your kid, and how much information they need.

Here's how it went.

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...69&postcount=5