Our 5 year old was placed almost three months ago.Although it has been challenging, it seems that we are moving forward. The problem is that after visiting the dentist for a check up we were informed that he has bad tooth decay. Not long after, tooth aches started and the pain has increased gradually to the point that he got an infection. The advice: keep him on pain killers (calpol and ibuprofen), which makes me really uncomfortable. Eventually (after a month of waiting) we got an appointment at the hospital, dentist advised to pull out five teeth! (including two front teeth). We are devastated and I feel unprepared to take such big decision. I agree that three bad teeth should be removed on general anaesthetic, I am much less sure about the front teeth, this will affect his confidence, his mood and attitude and self image (he loves his teeth). My request to the dentist was to pull out the three teeth, but suggested that they should fixed the two front teeth during the surgery. I feel strongly about this and think that SW are not focusing on other petty issues, much less related to his long term health. Any advice?
Health issues
congratulations on your new young man
I assume the dentist has a reason for wanting to extract the front teeth? I would imagine that these are his baby teeth as well so he will get his adult teeth. Maybe its not worth 'fixing' the front teeth - have they explained what that might entail?
Personsally I would go with the dentists recommendation - I'm sure they wouldnt extract if there wasnt a reason. Have you did discussed the alternatives?
Don't forget - Gappy toothed 5 year olds really arent that uncommon.
Congrats to your son!
One of my daughter had bad tooth decay. It would have helped her a lot, if she had lost her teeth early. She got frequent comments in school like "Why do you have rotten teeth?", "You must brush your teeth!" and - though rarely - "I don't want to sit next to you, you have rotten teeth". It was very painful for her. So, if the decay is visible, I would take that into account. My other daughter had lost 6 teeths by her 6th birthday. She had a very gappy smile at that age. I would explain to your son that baby teeth fall out and he would not keep them much longer anyway. Make him look forward to the tooth fairy and get a little tooth bag to collect them in. Make it special and fun and something to be proud of.
Extracting a number of teeth is quite common in children in care. I know children who had many more than 5 extracted. I think you need to try see it as something positive. If you remain worried, your son will pick up on that. The teeth would very soon fall out anyway, he will no longer be in pain, he will not get any more infections, he will be off painkillers, he will look like many other 5 year olds with tooth gaps, it might spare him a lot of psychological pain, he will soon have healthy adult teeth. Operations are scary, but for the dentist this is a routine procedure.
Thank you both serrakunda and chesnuttree ! It is so so helpful to see things in perspective and more objectively. Admittedly, I was too upset to see it under a positive light. Today I told my son that some kids receive the visit of the tooth fairy and some kids (those lucky ones) get to go to Tooth Fairly Land, so I guess we are on our way :) All the best.
What a lovely idea! Good luck.
I work on a childrens ward and we have regular dental theatre lists for children needing teeth extracted. The dentist would not suggest removing teeth unless it was necessary and would want to do everything that needed doing under one general anaesthetic, rather than needing further surgery in 6 months- 1 yrs time for more issues. Front teeth are usually removed as it is generally not possible to fill them. He is also at the age when they would be starting to fall out naturally, so wouldn't look like the odd one out. I have seen numerous 3 year olds have the whole lot removed due to decay, who then need to wait a long time for their adult teeth to come down.
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