toddler dental restoration?

[AnnaNova]

we had a dental appointment for my 2 yo today, and the dr told us my son will need some dental restoration. i knew his front teeth started developing cavities, but i guess they are pretty big. even though we brush teeth 2 times a day, i guess we didnt do it well enough.

they said he will need sort of like a crown on his front teeth (white), and then the teeth on the side of those will need some minor fillings and then they said that his molars in the very back have "deep grooves" which makes them prone to plaque deposits and decay, so they will put sealant on those.

the worst part about all this is that they do it in a hospital OR under GENERAL ANESTHESIA which completely freaks me out. 

i didnt make an appt for the procedure, i want to see how necessary it is and try and find out more about the procedure. has anyone had anything like this done? does anyone have any good resources where i could read up about this?

thanks

 

[mrscookie]

my son had to have filling done at 2.5 years old, also under general anaesthesia. it was fine. they were able to do it in the dentist office. our ped dentist has one "sedation day" per week, where they have an anaesthesiologist come in and do the sedation, with all the equipment they would have in a hospital setting, but it was really low-stress because it was in his office. if you were to prefer that, you may be able to find that kind of setup in your area as well. i do think that if you have decay in the baby teeth, unfortunately, you do have to fix it because it will only get worse and probably become painful, and may also affect the other teeth that are coming in underneath. 

[MittensKittens]

Originally Posted by AnnaNova 

we had a dental appointment for my 2 yo today, and the dr told us my son will need some dental restoration. i knew his front teeth started developing cavities, but i guess they are pretty big. even though we brush teeth 2 times a day, i guess we didnt do it well enough.

they said he will need sort of like a crown on his front teeth (white), and then the teeth on the side of those will need some minor fillings and then they said that his molars in the very back have "deep grooves" which makes them prone to plaque deposits and decay, so they will put sealant on those.

the worst part about all this is that they do it in a hospital OR under GENERAL ANESTHESIA which completely freaks me out. 

i didnt make an appt for the procedure, i want to see how necessary it is and try and find out more about the procedure. has anyone had anything like this done? does anyone have any good resources where i could read up about this?

thanks

 

My two year old has cavities on his four front teeth. Initially, I thought GA would be a reasonable option. Then I found out that dentists in my country of residence don't tend to treat milk teeth at all, and when they do they just drill without filling. Eventually, after having spoken to five ped dentists (who all blamed BREASTFEEDING for the decay!) and not finding one who would drill and fill, I finally managed to convince my dentist who has zero experience with kids to drill and fill the cavities.

My son has had one appointment so far. I think holding him down forcibly during the process would be traumatizing. My dentist cannot to GA (small office) and obviously nobody else would either, given the general attitude towards milk teeth. Surprisingly, my two year old behaved extremely bravely. He got local anesthesia and had one tooth repaired before he said he'd had enough and would no longer sit in the chair. My dentist was patient and excellent. We are getting another tooth filled tomorrow.

Just saying - if you're uneasy with GA, local anesthesia might just be an option for you. Some small kids do fine with that.

[sapphire_chan]

Some kids can manage local, but if your kid needs a lot of work or would have any problems staying still, it's going to be a lot easier on them to have GA. And the safest way to have GA is in a hospital with an experienced pediatric anesthesiologist (which has got to be one of the most stressful jobs in the world come to think of it)