[asa_anna]

We learned 2 weeks ago that our 19mth old son's top four incisors are severely decayed, and pediatric dentist has him scheduled for an extraction next week ;( We are heartbroken. They will be using 'conscious sedation, and local anesthetic' , and it shouldn't take more than 15 mins, but we are absolutely dreading it.

I am still nursing him in the evenings (we have co-slept since birth), he's never used a bottle, and he only drinks milk and water from a straw sippy cup during the day. No sweets or junk food.

In the meantime, the last two weeks, we have been giving him daily high quality cod liver oil (Sonne's), ghee, lots of organic butter, and homeopathic cell salts (Calc Phos, Calc Fluor and Silicea), with the hopes of halting/reversing the decay. My question is, how long do we wait to see progress? His teeth are browning (pulp chambers), and feel 'soft' to the touch- so we don't want to wait too long if it's more critical that we get these pulled due to risk of infection... On the same token, we want to allow for enough time to see if reversing works too.... Oh what to do

 

[littlebear3]

There's conflicting information about pulling baby teeth even if they're browning. All i can say is if it was my child id be getting 2nd and 3rd opinions.

If reversal happens, it will take longer than a week(when the extraction is scheduled)

There are some incredible methods that people have sworn by, amazon has some great books on cavity/decay reversal...but thats treading into territory that most dentists dispute.

If anything, Id definitely, without a second thought, get more opinions before doing that surgery on such a young baby. Being sure that theyre from an entirely different practice thats not affiliated or reccomended by your current dentist.

 

[asa_anna]

We had our 'regular' dentist say the same thing, and she is the one who referred us to see a pediatric dentist- which we chose ourselves based on availability...

We wanted to bring him into see a biological dentist, however the ones in our area (Vancouver, BC), don't treat children...But I suppose they could still provide a reco...I will reach out again and see..

My gut is telling me to wait. He really is such a healthy boy otherwise.

 

[littlebear3]

We had our 'regular' dentist say the same thing, and she is the one who referred us to see a pediatric dentist- which we chose ourselves based on availability...

We wanted to bring him into see a biological dentist, however the ones in our area (Vancouver, BC), don't treat children...But I suppose they could still provide a reco...I will reach out again and see..

My gut is telling me to wait. He really is such a healthy boy otherwise.

Ive heard incredible things about biological dentists. I couldn't remember the name when typing my initial post. Maybe even just have a heartfelt explanation with the receptionist and see if they'd make an exception and review his xrays and maybe a simple exam for a pseudo second opinion. At the very least, they should have a recommendation for a dentist who is more conservative when it comes to Baby extractions.

Itd take a whole heck of a lot for me to consider that type of surgery but then again I think teeth can heal, have healed my own, and am probably biased for such an opinion lol. I can absolutely see why you'd want to wait.

 

[asa_anna]

Thought it was time to leave a follow up!...

We did end up getting his four teeth pulled in August. We brought him to see a biological dentist, and he was of the same opinion, nothing could be done, so away we went... While waiting for his extraction day, his tooth ended up getting infected and developed an abcess- so we had to have him on a round of antibiotics :/

His extraction went so much better than I anticipated! He was consciously sedated through nasal sedation, and when they took him away, he was calm, drowsy and none the wiser- I was so relieved. My worst fear was having him upset and scared at being taken away by strangers...

It took them 15mins.- and they were done. We stayed with him at the office until sedation wore off, about 2 hours. He was cranky/upset when he initially saw us, but quickly dosed off once in our arms.

He healed with no issues at all, no antibiotics or pain meds needed. Dentist does not anticipate any issues with speech or other teeth.

Not a pleasant experience, but definitely not as bad as I was expecting.