Has your kid ever been sedated for dental work?

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Please talk me through it?

We are going to a children’s hospital for it, his dentist is a children’s dentist. I know we are in good hands. It is worse for me than for him, according to the nurse at the office. But but but. He’s my babyyyyy.

Encouraging words, please, if you have them?

Thanks

[af1212]

Have you gotten a second opinion?

My (pediatric) dentist that I previously felt comfortable with wanted to sedate my kid for dental work. I didn’t feel awesome about it. I talked to some people in my moms group and they all recommended I get a second opinion and gave some recs of dentists.

I took her, and we worked out another treatment plan that I feel so much more comfortable with.

I obviously don’t know your specific situation so maybe it’s not possible but I was so glad I went somewhere else and got more info.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Aug 6, 2021 8:25:47 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Have you gotten a second opinion?

My (pediatric) dentist that I previously felt comfortable with wanted to sedate my kid for dental work. I didn’t feel awesome about it. I talked to some people in my moms group and they all recommended I get a second opinion and gave some recs of dentists.

I took her, and we worked out another treatment plan that I feel so much more comfortable with.

I obviously don’t know your specific situation so maybe it’s not possible but I was so glad I went somewhere else and for more info.

Both the dentists in the practice agreed- he has soft teeth and needs six fillings/possibly silver caps. Hell only be out for a half hour or so, as opposed to doing it in office, where he screamed the whole time the last time.

I’m comfortable with this in theory, it’s just…we leave in an hour 😂

[stemmie]

CHOP?

DS was sedated twice in his pedodontist's office when he was 3 and 4; he had an enamel anomaly that led to a cavity and then a cracked filling in the same tooth a year later from grinding. It was really no biggie. They gave him a Valium and then Nitrous. He was so loopy after so the dentist carried him out to the car for me and buckled him in. I expect the hospital will hold onto him until he's less out-of-it. It was a preview of him drunk, TBH, but it wore off pretty quickly. One nice thing is that he had no recall of it and didn't develop a fear of procedures and never needed sedation going forward.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Aug 6, 2021 8:32:10 GMT -5 stemmie said:

CHOP?

DS was sedated twice in his pedodontist's office when he was 3 and 4; he had an enamel anomaly that led to a cavity and then a cracked filling in the same tooth a year later from grinding. It was really no biggie. They gave him a Valium and then Nitrous. He was so loopy after so the dentist carried him out to the car for me and buckled him in. I expect the hospital will hold onto him until he's less out-of-it. It was a preview of him drunk, TBH, but it wore off pretty quickly. One nice thing is that he had no recall of it and didn't develop a fear of procedures and never needed sedation going forward.

St. Chris! His dentist has operating privilege there.

[lilac05]

I haven’t yet…but we tried to avoid sedation when my oldest had teeth pulled. We just went with local. He sat still and didn’t make a scene, but it was really traumatizing. The local didn’t work well/started to wear off, and he didn’t want to be rude/hurt their feelings and say something, so he just dealt with it. I felt SO awful afterwards.

Next time he needs more than very basic work, sedation. 100%.

[icedcoffee]

Not for dental work, but my almost 2 year old was sedated for an eye procedure and we'll do it again soon for another procedure. They handle it really well and then you can spoil them with lots of treats. D will be ok.

[yourmother]

Honestly? I would be all about it.

I just had dental work on my mouth yesterday and had the nitrous oxide (whatever laughing gas is) and I really wish I was sedated. I know it's different when it comes to kids and little bodies, but if both dentists are recommending it, I would go for it.

[icedcoffee]

Also--I've heard some kids come out of sedation like the hulk. The nurse at the children's hospital said this generally happens if you try to wake the kid up before the meds wear off and their body is ready. So just let him come out of it gently in his own time. My kiddo had no issues.

[karinothing]

Aug 6, 2021 8:37:54 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I haven’t yet…but we tried to avoid sedation when my oldest had teeth pulled. We just went with local. He sat still and didn’t make a scene, but it was really traumatizing. The local didn’t work well/started to wear off, and he didn’t want to be rude/hurt their feelings and say something, so he just dealt with it. I felt SO awful afterwards.

Next time he needs more than very basic work, sedation. 100%.

Oh no! Did they give him nitrous? My children had some teeth pulled and they gave him nitrous and I feel like he was completely unaware of what was going on. 

[formerlyak]

I guess it depends how deep the cavalries are. Both my kids had molars grow in with soft spots and needed a filling or two each when they were really little like 3 or 4. One was shallow enough they didn’t even use Novocain. The others they just used the Novocain shot. My oldest thought the shot was the worse part. My youngest thought the weird feeling as the numbness wears off was the worst part. Neither thought the drilling was bad at all. Our dentist even did one of them quickly during a cleaning appointment.

[momof2]

Both my kids have medical issues that have required numerous sedations. My cancer kid has probably been sedated 20 plus times. My special needs kid just recently was sedated to have 13 teeth pulled, capped, etc. it has always been fine. I mean, they come out of sedation kind of a mess, but it isn’t traumatic for them or anything. One time my kid threw up in Starbucks at the hospital, but I’m pretty sure that was when they gave her ketamine.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

We did the first round in office with nitrous- it was a same-day, he’s in pain and this needs to be done NOW situation. He’s gonna be a mean drunk, if the nitrous is any indication. No Phish concerts in his future

[CrazyLucky]

DD has to get like three fillings and a cap. She wasn't like asleep sedated, but she was out of it, woozy and kind of like a drunk. I don't know how else they could have done that much work. She just drank something and it started working about 20 minutes later. No ill effects and it was kind of funny to see her in that condition, knowing that she was ok.

[gretchenindisguise]

We did for L when they were 4, nearly 5. Needed a silver cap as well. It was in the office because out dentist was able to with someone brought in. I held her, they gave a shot that knocked her out and he carried her in. That was the hardest part for me, seeing her that out - it messed with me for a few minutes. But then all was good. L was still a bit loopy even the next day.

[momof2]

I will add that my best advice is to present only an easy, breezy face to your kid about all this. Having been around a ton of kids going through medical stuff, my anecdotal evidence would suggest that kids do the best when the parent presents with little to no anxiety. Kids feed off this stuff from the parent.

[puppylove64]

Aug 6, 2021 8:43:10 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Also--I've heard some kids come out of sedation like the hulk. The nurse at the children's hospital said this generally happens if you try to wake the kid up before the meds wear off and their body is ready. So just let him come out of it gently in his own time. My kiddo had no issues.

This! My 16 mo old got tubes yesterday and he was awful when he woke up. After getting a good nap he was back to normal.
My 6 year old had to get a crown a few weeks ago and did fine with laughing gas. His mouth was really sore for a day or two though, so don’t feel bad offering something later for pain too

[sent]

Aug 6, 2021 8:28:01 GMT -5 ProfessorArtNerd said:

Both the dentists in the practice agreed- he has soft teeth and needs six fillings/possibly silver caps. Hell only be out for a half hour or so, as opposed to doing it in office, where he screamed the whole time the last time.

I’m comfortable with this in theory, it’s just…we leave in an hour 😂

That's a lot of dental procedures that need to get done. Sedation and getting all procedures done at once for young kids is a common treatment recommendation from pediatric dentists. 

Good luck to your DS!

(dentist person here)

[lilac05]

Aug 6, 2021 8:51:03 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Aug 6, 2021 8:37:54 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

I haven’t yet…but we tried to avoid sedation when my oldest had teeth pulled. We just went with local. He sat still and didn’t make a scene, but it was really traumatizing. The local didn’t work well/started to wear off, and he didn’t want to be rude/hurt their feelings and say something, so he just dealt with it. I felt SO awful afterwards.

Next time he needs more than very basic work, sedation. 100%.

Oh no! Did they give him nitrous? My children had some teeth pulled and they gave him nitrous and I feel like he was completely unaware of what was going on. 

Nope. Just the shots. He’s had two rounds of baby teeth pulled. The first one went just fine. Numbing, novacaine, pulled, done. Easy! So we decided to do the same for the next round. (He was 9, so not tiny.) But the roots were longer and the dentist had a hard time getting them out. He stayed calm and did a great job, but he had tears streaming down his face. I burn through that stuff really quickly, and it looks like he does, but he was too nervous to say anything. (We talked about speaking up before, but apparently not enough.) Going that route was one of my biggest regrets in parenting so far. He used to weirdly LOVE going to the dentist, but now he’s understandably much more hesitant.

[karinothing]

lilac05, poor buddy. Hopefully he won't need work again, but nitrous did work really well for my kids. My son also had teeth with very deep roots (I mean I saw the dentist struggling) and my kid was just off in la la land.

[yourmother]

sent,

I got a crown yesterday (the first session) and had the laughing gas. It was still pretty traumatic for me. I need to go back for a second crown in 2022. Is it appropriate to ask for some sort of sedation? Or is my request unreasonable?

[sent]

Aug 6, 2021 9:35:26 GMT -5 yourmother said:

sent ,

I got a crown yesterday (the first session) and had the laughing gas. It was still pretty traumatic for me. I need to go back for a second crown in 2022. Is it appropriate to ask for some sort of sedation? Or is my request unreasonable?

No, not unreasonable. Many dentists do offer some kind of sedation for patients that request it. If the office won't offer it, you could always get a second opinion from an office that does. 

I'm not super familiar with the different levels of sedation since we never use it in orthodontics. I think general dentists usually offer some kind of oral sedation and if that's not enough then there are offices that work with a traveling anesthesiologist to offer IV sedation in the office. 

[cleo29]

No, just laughing gas to calm nerves. But C was sedated to have her adenoids and tonsils removed and it was fine.

[thebreakfastclub]

My son was sedated around age 4 for some work that they never would have been able to do with him awake. It was fine. The only thing was they warn that the kids can be cranky later that day, and mine sure was. My husband gave him a cookie to make him feel better and he put it on the floor and hulk smashed it, which was hilarious. An hour later, he was back to his normal self.

[cereal K]

DS (almost 7) just had dental surgery at the beginning of July. He had an extra tooth that was creating problems with the permanent teeth that had come in/were coming in.

He had to be put under general because of where the tooth was (front and center of the top). I was feeling the same way you are!

He did great and everything was fine. He came out of anesthesia just fine (but also a little hilarious) and was basically back to "normal" but the end of the day.

Our Oral Surgeon offered a non-narcotic, time-release pain reliever shot. It was approved earlier this year for pediatric use, but wasn't covered by our insurance, so it was about $400 OOP. But it was SO great and I would 100% do it again. DS had virtually no pain for three days.

[sandandsea]

My kids have gotten nitrous oxide for fillings and it went well. It wasn’t a big deal and they weren’t traumatized either.

[liveintheville]

My youngest is 11 but autistic and hates the dentist. He needed to have a tooth pulled and some cavities filled. They gave him oral sedation and it went really well. He doesn’t remember a thing. He was drunk afterwards but I put him to bed and he slept it off.

[statgirl]

My then 3 yo had sedation in office with the traveling anesthesiologist to get all his work done. It was easier than subsequent visits where we did nitrous for work/sealants.

A related aside: The first dentist we saw was very rude and made me feel like a crap mom. I vowed to do better with the baby. Guess what? The baby (despite getting his teeth brushed twice a day, flossing, and being way more compliant) had many of the same issues. So my contribution—if you start to feel guilty about your kid’s teeth issues, don’t.

[WOT?*]

GD2 has been sedated a couple times. Once for a medical procedure when she was about six and twice for dental work when she was about 3 and again at 5 for the same issue (she needed her front four teeth capped. With the second procedure, she had to have the initial caps removed and replaced and it was some major traumatic work for all of us.
If he's dental traumatized, I'd recommend it regardless. She was loopy as heck coming out of it, but has no fear of dentists (or doctors, just a reluctance because "again? I hate not being healthy and having these medical issues. Thanks Grandma.") or memory of going through any major work.

[akayf]

DS had to at age 5. 4 or 5 cavities plus a baby root canal. Our regular family dentist sent us to a pediatric dentist practice because if he attempted to do all that, my kid would be terrified of the dentist for life.

Pediatric practice recommended sedation so it could be done all at once instead of multiple visits with laughing gas. It was done in the office. It’s a large pediatric practice.

They gave him a drink that relaxed him and made him loopy. They had him sit in a waiting area with a bean bag. Then they brought him into the exam room and I was sent back to the regular waiting room. I got frequent updates. Once he was awake and ready to leave they offered to carry him out to the car for me since he was unsteady on his feet. I just ran out to the car to get the large umbrella stroller that my younger kid used and tossed DS in that.