AARRRRGGGHHH!

[flea]

What's it about? What it's always fucking about around here, folks - dentistry. Casper went in today. At her cleaning 5 months ago they said she had one cavity. We switched dentists (for various unrelated reasons). These ones say two crowns, possibly root canals, and 8 additional fillings, and sealants, and the treatment plan comes to more than $2000. WTFF? We JUST paid these people $1000 for Dillo's fillings. How can she have developed this much more tooth decay in 5 months, during a time when we have been working pretty hard to brush teeth appropriately? This is the kid who cooperates! Who brushes her teeth and has been to the dentist regularly! And had clean checkups until that one 5 months ago. How did we get to 2 crowns?

mr. flea, who did the honors this time, was too stunned to do much but make an appointment.

AND I can't even post about it on Facebook because my mother is there now and we lie to her about this. Because I'd never hear the end of it, otherwise. She is EXTREMELY holier than thou about dentistry, being married to a dentist.

Comments

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Root canals? What is she, six? That's crazy. (By which I mean to imply that I find it hard to imagine it's the fault of your dental hygiene.)

[nestra.livejournal.com]

That seems awfully excessive.

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

Root canals? I didn't know you even could do root canals for kids.

[hecubot.livejournal.com]

I think I might get a second opinion.

Some dentists have to pay for new summer homes and are more aggressive in their diagnosis than others.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

The suspicion of that was why we left our previous dentist. This (pediatric) dentist was recommended by my new (adult) dentist, who was personally vetted by my stepfather (a dentist) by phone from Boston!!

[loligo.livejournal.com]

I'd get a second opinion anyway.

How are your & Mr. Flea's teeth? Because I think genetics is a huge part of the issue. We were often unable to brush Chuckles' teeth when she was toddler, due to her sensory issues, and she's made it seven without a cavity.

[loligo.livejournal.com]

ETA an ARGHHH! on your behalf. What a nightmare to have to deal with. Squeaky has a pit in one of his front teeth, due to infant fluorosis. When we checked a year ago, there was still no decay around the pit, but I'm fully expecting that there will be next time he goes in.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Well, we had cavities filled on 6 of Dillo's front teeth last month, and it was pretty easy and non-traumatic. Just expensive.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

His are excellent - he didn't see a dentist for 10 years or so in his 20s and is clean as a whistle. I had my first cavity at 14 and then had a couple in my early 20s. Then I got pregnant and stopped brushing my teeth more than once a week, which lasted about 5 years. I'm getting better, now.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I think our side of the family generally does have good teeth, though: messily-spaced ones, but fewer cavities than average. I think a lot of people who neglect dental hygiene the way you do would be much worse-off.

I obviously don't even know what a crown is, since I thought it was the kind of thing they do to 50-year-olds who are fearful of needing dentures. I've never heard of a crown or a root canal being done on somebody's baby teeth! Why root canal when you can just pull the damn thing and wait for a replacement to grow in??

(I'm sure there are reasons, blah blah blah. But...!)

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

A crown is when the cavity is too big to just fill - filling it would break the tooth, since there would be more filling than cavity. So they make a little hat for the tooth and fit it over, basically like a cap, sealing the whole thing (they file the tooth down so it fits tightly, and shape it like a tooth. They make tooth-colored ones, but old-skool this is what a "gold tooth" is.) You can get a crown if you break a tooth, too.

Root canal is if the root is infected, they can either do a root canal (or in kids, Dr. Google tells me, a pulpectomy, which is a little more short-term while you wait for the tooth to fall out on its own schedule), which kills the nerves but saves the tooth, or pull the tooth. With front baby teeth they seem to often pull them (one does see 3-4 year olds with missing front teeth pretty often). This is a baby molar which will be lost but not until she's 10-12. (It's two, the same tooth on each side). Can't really pull it because things would move around in ways that would be negative for the adult teeth developing in that area, and can't wait it out since it could be there another 6 years and have the chance to get infected.

Apparently they can't know if she'll need root canals until they get in there, so there's a decent chance it won't come to that. Certainly she's not currently visibly infected, abscessed, or in pain.

[ste-noni.livejournal.com]

When we were dealing with Ellie's stuff, our dentist told us that pulpectomies are rarely successful in children due to something unique and undefined regarding their roots. Maybe this only applied to The front teeth, but you might get a second opnion.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Ay yi yi, that's scary & infuriating. Crossing fingers for you & Casper that some (or all) of it can be avoided.

dentists

[cygnet (from livejournal.com)]

I am currently working with a highly regarded dentist who is very committed to mouths being in as ideal a condition as possible. She recommends progressive and thorough treatments. She found MANY things to repair in my mouth that my previous dentist had not. I struggled with whether I believed her advice because it was **mucho** bucks worth of stuff she wanted to do, and I had thought my mouth was a pretty healthy place. So I told her she needed to prioritize the work and spread it out over a couple of years to fit within my insurance limits. (In the long run, I think her advice was mostly right. My mouth is pretty darn happy these days.)

While it may be advisable, in the best of circumstances, for Casper to have all that work done - I'd suggest you press pretty hard about whether she needs it all at once, or if some can be deferred without too much risk.

[haphazardmethod.livejournal.com]

WTF? Just chiming in to say, yeah, another opinion would be useful.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Wow, that does all sound pretty crazy!! Especially for teeth that are just going to fall OUT!