teeth extraction on a 14 month old

[Artemisia]

I have never posted here before but have spent quite a bit of time reading through the archive files gathering as much information as possible. Thank you so much Smilemomma and all of you that have posted such wonderful information! I have learned a great deal from you all and my son has benefited greatly.
My son is 14 months old and will be going in for dental surgery next week. Unfortunately I have not found a dentist that supports our nighttime nursing habits…it seems to be a common
problem from what I gather.
Two of his teeth came out missing large pieces of enamel and the enamel that remained quickly eroded away. His other two top teeth have caries and need to be worked on as well. The dentist is planning to crown all four of his top teeth.
The question that I have is concerning the two teeth that are missing enamel. Though the dentist wants to try and fix them, they will most likely have to be pulled. She informed me yesterday that if they are pulled I can’t breastfeed for 24 hours. My son still breastfeeds on a regular basis and I just can’t image denying him that. It would be traumatic. I know that Smilemomma mentioned that she would still breastfeed regardless and I know I will too. My question is have any of you ever dealt with pulled teeth and how did you deal with the breastfeeding issue? What is the worst that could happen when I breastfeed him after surgery? If the teeth start bleeding how difficult would it be to stop the bleeding?
I want to do what is right for me son, including his teeth, but am unwilling to cause unnecessary
trauma.

Judith

[simonee]

I'm sorry this is happening...

From what I've heard smilemomma tell here, bf'ing is a GOOD thing after dental trauma (which I take to include extraction) becuase it stimulates circulation and thus the healing process. There was a thread at some point in which she explained why the bf process is good for loose teeth and how the breast forms a cushion rather than a negative device in this situation.

(wait, I'm going to do a search. I just remember something goofy I said in it) it's this one check sm's response about 2/3 down the page. It's about loose teeth, but I think a lot in it applies to your case, too, esp if you read the whole thing (which I didn't do now).

i think the worst that can happen is that he'll only feel a little better rather than a whole lot.
Good luck. Please tell us what happens!

Oh and one more thing: WTF is these dentists' problem with breastfeeding????!!!!!! Thanks I feel much better now

[Artemisia]

Thank you Simonee! I will definitly breastfeed regardless of what our dentist says. It was so annoying.. she told us to stop feeding him candy the other day. He has not even had refined sugar yet! We are vegitarians, eat only wholegrain foods and so on....
I believe that his teeth problems are genetic. I have rather bad teeth myself.
I am worried though about excessive bleeding though.....

Judith

[simonee]

Isn't that the most annoying part? They tell you what to do, and don't even realize that your bf-ing fits in a philosophy that's totally about the child's health.

That's the part where I decided to break the bf rules before an appointment involving a sedative: when they told me my dd could have "clear liquids" up to 2 hours before the appointment, but no bm "because that's dairy." Well, aside from not thinking my milk compares to bovine milk just because it's called milk, the clear liquids included 7up, ginger ale and "clear KoolAid."

I mean, if I were a dentist and saw lots of teeth affected by candy, and then had a customer who says she doesn't feed the child candy, I'd be rather curious as to what she does do. And if I would hear in such a case that she bf's much longer than most of the candy-customers, I'd try to find out more about it because I'd assume this was a customer who could teach me something about health. Oh... whatever... at least here we all appreciate women who consider bf part of good childcare

[geomom]

My dd had 4 top teeth extracted at 27 months old. She was not sedated so I don't know if that affects when you can breastfeed after dental work. Basically dd was only supposed to use a straw for about 2 hours after the extraction. After that breastfeeding and eating were okay. The wait had to do with the local anesthetic and not wanting dd to bite me or her tongue or cheek.

[Artemisia]

Elliotfs surgery was yesterday. All went well though it was quite stressful for all involved! The dentist ended up having to pull the two teeth that had the missing enamel and put crowns on the other two top ones.
He was so upset when he woke up from the anesthesia and kept retching due to nausea. I felt terrible and so helpless. But as soon as I got him home and started nursing him things went much better. He fell asleep at the breast and slept for four hours. He is now pretty much back to his usual selfc.eating ok and seems recovered from all the medication they gave him.
Thanks geomom, simonee and gatormommy123 for your input.
It was much appreciated!!!!

[Smilemomma]