Teeth Extraction of 3 yr old?

My 3 yr old baby girl has been adviced to go for teeth extraction for the front three teeth of the top. Have the following concerns and would appreciate if someone can help us:





1. She will not be able to sit for the whole process and hence might have to go thru general anesthesia. Is General Anesthesia okay for a 3 yr old? Does it not have any effects after the whole procedure?


2. We have read that removing the teeth may effect the permanent ones and hence some sort of placeholders are kept to avoid this. Can we get some information about the same and like, is it painful, or does it involve another process or are they permanent?


3. The teeth has to be removed due to the decay caused by prolonged breast feeding. Is there another solution besides the extraction by removing the infection or things like that?


4. How much will the whole process will take and till what portion is covered in the Insurance?





Thanks in advance.

Teeth Extraction of 3 yr old?
Hi I am a dental assistant, and this is just my opinion, to be shared or not.





1: I would suggest taking her to a pediatric dentist and letting them give you the best recommendations for sedation. I would recommend following all the instructions that they give you, because they deal with children that age, day in and day out.


2: I have never seen a "place holder" which we call space maintainers put in for front teeth, but then again it is very rare to see a child in my practice this age having front teeth pulled. But again ask the pediatric dentist.


3: I don't know where you were given the "diagnosis" that the decay was cause by "prolonged breastfeeding" because that is NOT what caused the decay. You could have breastfed her till she was 4 and it would not have caused decay, if you had brushed her teeth daily, not allowed her to go to sleep with the milk in her mouth, and had gotten her teeth checked every 6 months after she turned 1. That is just what is called "baby bottle rot", which in your case was not the bottle, but the breast, but it is the same thing. It was caused by the milk sitting on the teeth for a long period of time, not the breast feeding itself. The dentist could perhaps do a pulpotomy and a stainless steel crown, but I do not have x-rays of the teeth, so I don't know if that is an option for her teeth.


4: If you were to have this done in my office the extractions would be $95.00 a piece. Now that sounds high, but it covers the anesthetic, behavioral management (trust me, at that age this is inevitable) and the actual pulling of the tooth. We however do not do sedation for that age, so I am not sure what a pediatric dentist would charge for that, but I am going to ball park it and say about $250 to 350. All insurances are different, as are all plans, so I can not tell you exactly what your insurance will charge. Possible that they will at least pay for 1/2.





AND MARTYK: You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, so you helped this woman zero percent. These teeth would not "Fall out" till this child is 5-6 yrs old. It has nothing to do with a money grubbing dentist. Either the mom gets them pulled or fixed, or this little girl is going to end up with a major infection that could put her in the hospital. Please, don't give dental advice anymore, because you have no real dental knowledge.
Reply:the surgery is safe if you baby is healthy. the pulling of these teeth will not effect the permanent teet. Will not need a spacer either. You might consider getting a pedo partial which is fake front teeth and is fairly inexpensive. the whole process would take about 2 hours, and the medical insurance would only cover the anestesia you would have to have seperate insurance to cover the dental part. Hope this helped.
Reply:1. If you consider general anesthesia, please consider having this done in a hospital setting with an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist present at all times.





2. BACK teeth act as placeholders for the permanent teeth, but the front of the jaws is such an active growth center that you don't really need to worry about this with the early loss of front teeth.





3. You might consider pulpotomies, but if this was not suggested, I presume there is already too much damage to the teeth to make it practical.





4. I have no idea about fees in your area or your particular insurance coverage, so I can't answer. Sorry...
Reply:While the front teeth will soon fall out anyway and some people wonder why get them pulled, there are concerns for different factors..I pulled up this website and hope it helps you..








http://experts.about.com/q/Oral-Surgery-...





I hope your darling is ok soon..Its no fun to have teeth pulled for whatever reason,but rest assured he/she is young enough and should not have any memories of this...
Reply:Dr Sam is pretty much on track with his answer, but some add'l thoughts...





1. G.A. is fine for a 3yo; i'm assuming it WILL be done in Hosp OR at at least at an oral surgeon's office.





2. What you have read is primarily applicable to posterior teeth; spacing shoudl be ok w/ the front teeth, although the early extraction may delay the eruption of the perm. teeth by months or a year maybe.


Maybe some pain and discomfort, but the doc will give age-appropriate dosage of pain meds as needed.





3. it may be poss. to do a pulpotomy (this is like a "kiddie root canal") and white acryllic crowns on the front teeth, but often times w/ bottle (or breast) milk decay, there's nothing even left to hold the crown so extraction is the best option.





4. If you have dental insurance, they should cover about 80% of the procedure - 3 extractions free will be about 100-150 each and the anesthesia would be 400-600, i would guess.





Good example tho of how even breast milk (which is good and healthy for kids!) is still full of sugar (lactose) and therefore cavity-causing if left in place too long.





good luck!
Reply:Just find a good dentist, or get a second opinion if you're that concerned.


Time and procedure- depend upon doctor and time for anesthesia. Insurance coverage depends on what type of plan you have.
Reply:I can help a bit. I had dental surgery when I was four - so I'm going on my parent's knowledge, because I don't remember much, except that I got to ride in a wagon to the operating room and they mixed my medicine with kool-aid :) A good pediatric dentist will help you feel at ease. Anyways, my mom is a nurse and she says the anesthesia thing was fine. Actually, she thought it was really nice because it's pretty scary for an adult to hear and see all those things going on, but for a kid? If she's asleep, she'll have a lot better time of it.


Placeholders - I had those on my back teeth. They were connected to my other baby teeth and were permanent, until the teeth fell out. I remember these, since they didn't come out until I was almost 12. They aren't painful at all, unless a tooth is trying to crowd the space, then I guess there might be a little pressure, but not a pain. It will be so gradual that she won't realize it. However, a little girl I babysat lost all of her front teeth in an accident when she was 18 mos old and she didn't need any kind of spacers or anything, so it is possible that she won't need those at all.


As far as the teeth removal, I think you would be best off to have them removed. It's very difficult to start out that early with problem teeth (believe me, I know!)


I'm not sure on cost, but I THINK that if you have insurance, and she goes into the hospital with general anesthesia, that it would cover it like it covers a day surgery.





Best of luck - your daughter has a long road ahead, but it will be worth it. My advice is to watch her teeth and jaw development very carefully and catch anymore problems as soon as possible. I know that it is scary to think about, but you can also realize that in a few years, she won't remember much of this at all. I'm 21 now and had I not had spacers to remind me, I would never have remembered. Likewise, educational psychologists tell us that children do not have fully developed memory capabilities until they are about 4 years old, so there's a large chance that she won't remember a thing. Best of luck to you and your daughter!!
Reply:1.FOR A CHILD THAT IS ONLY 3 AND EXTRACTIONS ARE INDICATED, A PEDIATRIC DENTIST OR ORAL SURGEON WOULD DO THIS IN A HOSPITAL SETTING.





2.WHAT YOU PROBABLY MEAN IS SPACE MAINTAINERS. .THESE WOULD BE PERMANENTLY ATTACHED UNTIL SOME OF THE OTHER PERMANENT ANTERIOR TEETH STARTED TO ERUPT. THIS WOULD BE A SEPARATE APPOINTMENT FROM THE EXTRACTIONS.





3.BREAST FEEDING IS UNLIKELY TO CAUSE THIS SORT OF DECAY.


HOWEVER, GIVING THE CHILD A BOTTLE AT NIGHT WITH ANYTHING BUT WATER WILL CAUSE WHAT'S KNOWN AS "BOTTLE CARIES." A SOLUTION TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING TO OTHER TEETH IS TO HAVE THE CHILD LEARN TO BRUSH -- AND TO AID THEM FOR THER FIRST FEW YEARS, AND NEVER GIVE THEM JUICE OR MILK AT NIGHT IN A BOTTLE.





4. THIS QUESTION CAN BEST BE ANSWERED BY YOUR


DENTIST.


GOOD LUCK!


BOTH DR. SAM AND DR. SWANSON GAVE GOOD POINTS TO CONSIDER.
Reply:Okay, I have read LittleMermaid's reply to me, I believe her and will admit that I'm wrong. Therefore, I APOLOGIZE for my remark about the dentists.





I was just sort of shocked that such a young child needed that kind of treatment.



hotels reviews