Extraction/Spacer vs. Pulpectomy/Crown

[baby-makes-3]

DD is almost 4yo and had 10 teeth with various stages of decay. We found a laser dentist to take care of the first 8, but the two worst ones were too deep for fillings. Our goal was to avoid GA.

Now we are facing the prospect of conscious sedation which I am reading has its own risks, so I am going to try for nitrous oxide but I am doubting the dentist will agree to that based on my DD's long experience and lost innocense with dentists.

SO, my goal is to make this as quick and painless as possible. So I am wondering if it would be better to just do an extraction with a spacer rather than a pulpectomy and crown. Which is faster? I understand that the goal is to save the tooth, I get that, but these are temporary teeth (9 yr molars I believe) and if it will not matter in the long run, I would seriously just opt for the quickest procedure.

Any advice much appreciated!

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

The pulpectomy hurt my ds even with local and nitrus so the dentist couldnt even put the crown on. So we are now doing conscious sedation. I wanted to avoid GA at all costs but was comfortable with the conscious sedation he has one more session and all his teeth will be fixed.

The sedation was easy though getting him to swallow it was a challange but we did it. He came out of it fine and has no memory of even being at the dentist.

[Denali]

Originally Posted by baby-makes-3

SO, my goal is to make this as quick and painless as possible. So I am wondering if it would be better to just do an extraction with a spacer rather than a pulpectomy and crown. Which is faster? I understand that the goal is to save the tooth, I get that, but these are temporary teeth (9 yr molars I believe) and if it will not matter in the long run, I would seriously just opt for the quickest procedure.

If you are only looking for which is the quickest procedure, go with the extractions.

My son has to have extensive work done as well, including 4 extractions, some crowns, etc. The dentist estimated the total time of actual working on him to be 1 hour, and estimated the extractions to take up only a couple of minutes of that. That should tell you how long the other stuff will take.

That doesn't mean I'd go for extraction vs. crown, just wanted to give you an idea about the difference in time/effort involved

Off topic:
You said you already read up on conscious sedation and its risks.....are there any websites you can recommend?

[baby-makes-3]

Thanks for the response! Any more would be appreciated...

Here are two studies I found --

http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/137/4/502

http://jada.ada.org/cgi/content/full/132/11/1531