My three year old needs fillings for her cavities. She's so scared of getting her teeth cleaned, her pediatric dentist recommended intravenous sedation. If your kids have undergone IV sedation or other type of conscious sedation--or if you opted not to use any sedation--for dental procedures, I would love to hear about your experience.
I'm new to Mamasource, so I just found a bunch of Requests/Responses on Dental Care and got great advice about conscious sedation. Thanks to those who responded to other Requests; it helped me, too!
My two daughters have had cavities filled using laughing gas. They were about 5 & 6 at the time, so a little older, but definitly super scared. I highly recommend the gas, they put a little nose on that smells great, grape, orange, bubblegum. Then they just basically breathe thru their nose & it make them very relaxed. They both layed there really relaxed & my six year old even fell asleep!
I have five children,,,and please dont put her under. I have a four year old that had a cavity filled last year and was scared, but I have a dentist in OC that Ive known for 15 years...and he was great and my friend that took her son also and he did great .
But she did find someone closer this year and talked so good about this office. It was for children and if you want I can get the name of the office, he wasnt put under. She said they treated him as if he was king for the day. If that helps....I would take her to visit and then make the appt...? I hope that I helped a bit...
Here is my email : ____@____.com
Hi A. my daughter had to get alot of work done we put her under we had to . We went to loma linda they have a great doctors and the front desk staff was very helpful.
M. sm with two girls
HI, I recommend oral sedation. It relaxes them. My kids dentist also puts on a movie for them as well.
Y.
My now 6 year old has genetically weak teeth so we've gone through far more dental work than I ever thought possible.
We used "laughing gas" and found a really great ped dentist office after going to more than one (first one we actually filed a formal complaint against!) The first couple times they had to use a "papoose board" (spelled that wrong I think?). It's basically like swaddling. The office we go to also specializes in special needs cihldren as well. By the time he was 3 he had an infected tooth that needed a root canal and these guys were great.
We let him bring his blankie and his favorite stuffed toy at the time and also dressed him in a shirt of his favorite character. This gives the drs and nurses something to talk to him about to help make him feel better.
To this day he's scared of going and it takes a lot but he also remembers the pain and horror of the infected tooth which helps get him there in the first place. He doesn't want to go through that again.
After he's done we go to his favorite train store and he gets to pick out a new Thomas the Tank toy, value dependant on what he just went through.
It's hard seeing your little one go through all of that. I still kick myself for not realizing there was something wrong with his tooth and having it get infected! But I also know just how fast things happen to his teeth after things appeared so fast once we started bringing him in on a regular basis (a decent sized cavity developed between the work on one side of his mouth and the other side of his mouth..so like a month to a month and a half!)
Good luck!
My daughter who is 6 also had LOTS of cavities at 3. We decided against her being put completely to sleep and opted for the "laughing gas" We had to do about 5 treatments to get it done. We let her choose what we were going to buy her as a surprise after each treatment.
Hi there. My daughter needed 2 cavities filled also when she was three. Fortunately they were small enough that all we needed was to give her some "laughing gas" to relax her and they were able to do the work on both without sedating or novicane. Ask her dentist if they are small enough to have that option. My daughter is five now and just had another cavity filled and didn't even need the gas, they were also small enough to go without a shot. Hope this helps and good luck
Hello A. actually I found a great ped's dentist in Redlands. She was wonderful and my 4 year old daughter recieved light sedation to breath via her nose which was nitrous oxide to get a filling and it worked great. The dentist told her it was an elephant nose (and it was pink) and it actually smelled like bubble gum. My daughter was coherant and able to follow command. She quietly watched a movie of her choice so she was very pleased and has been back for her cleanings without a problem or fear.
Good Luck
