mama R
03-09-2003, 03:59 PM
My 6 year old son had his first cavity filled on Feb. 26th. The dentist (not a pediatric dentist) was very gentle and considerate of my son's first impression with having dental work done. My son did great and only complained afterwards that his mouth felt funny and numb. When the novacaine wore off he stopped complaining. Four days later he complained of a head ache. Five days later he had a temp. of 103.4. The next few days he was not really himself. I thought he was coming down with a virus, but on Thursday morning he woke up with the left side of his face swollen. That was the side he had his dental work done, so I took him back to the dentist. She took one look at him and wanted to see him as soon as possible. The dentist looked in his mouth and tapped on the tooth she had filled. It didn't hurt him. She thought that was very weird. My son was only complaining of his mouth hurting when his cheek was touched or he was eating. She wanted to take an x-ray to see if something weird was going on that she couldn't see. What she found on the x-ray was some fluid surrounding his permenant tooth in his gum(it was directly above the tooth he had filled). She couldn't explain what it was and said she had never seen anything like this in 20 years of dentistry. Her partner couldn't figure it out either. So she prescribed some antibiotics and wanted me to see an oral surgeon ASAP. I told her to call the oral surgeon and make an appointment for me that day. So she did. I took my poor swollen boy to see him and he couldn't figure it out either. But he was very concerned with the swelling and told me that if it didn't go down by the morning, he would need to have surgery to drain the pus. The next day he was more swollen. He had surgery that afternoon. They put him all the way under and the Oral Surgeon found a pocket of pus that he drained and then he put a drainage tube in my son's gum to help it drain some more. He will take out the tube this tuesday. He still told me he didn't know where the infection came from. I say it has to be from the dentist messing up and shoving some bacteria into my son's gum while filling the cavity. He said it was a freak accident. What do you think the root of the problem was? Is the dentist negligent? Should I blame her and find another dentist for my son? This has cost me alot. My medical insurance has paid for the surgery center but with no dental insurance I have already paid the oral surgeon over $400 and we are not even through yet. It has also cost my son alot of pain and suffering and we have both missed school. Should I blame the dentist for being incompetent? Should I take legal action? Should I find a new dentist? Or do you think it was a "freak accident"? I don't know what I should do. Help....