Tuesday, July 21, 2009

the dentist....

Well, we made it thru the dental appt. and it wasn't half bad. He was fine while we were in the waiting area.....25 min. past our appt. time, I might add......not good for a fidgety 9 yr. old w/Down syndrome. He actually would have done great in the exam room, IF he could have stayed in the corner chair that was supposed to have been for me. It took me and the dr. dragging him to the exam chair, but we got him up there.....screaming all the while. Laying him down on it was a totally different matter altogether. Luckily, the dr. has much experience with unhappy children and with me holding his hand and laying across his legs and the dentist holding his head, he screamed to his heart's content, not realizing all the while he was letting the dentist look very closely at his teeth.

Fortuneately, it only took a few minutes and we were done with the exam part of the visit. Now to the consultation room.....which we all know means "how much it's gonna cost you". He suggested going to the hospital and using his suite there, so they could sedate him and get as much done as we could. Lucky for us, our medical ins. will pay for the anesthesiologist and the dental suite.....now for the work needed to be done.

Why is it that they think we need to do all of this stuff for prevention??? You know, when I was a kid, we didn't even use novacaine for deadening purposes. It was straight up, drill the cavity out and fill it with that nasty tasting silver stuff, which we now know has the dreaded mercury in it that's supposed to kill us. Oh joy!! I have a mouth full of those!

The very patient dr. says that he has a couple of front teeth that need to be pulled so the permanent ones can move into place.....check. I'm good with that.....one of the baby ones is already quite loose. He also has a couple that have cavities that would also come out....check....I'm good with that one too. BUT what in the world is up with putting stainless steel 'crowns' on all of his back baby molars......for protection, he says. Yeah right....at $233 a pop.....that one aint happening. We'll brush really good in the back area!

I'm not ready to need lotto money to pay for his teeth.....he might need braces later on.....at least with braces, you can pay for them in a 24-month installment plan!

Oh well, JEB got a sticker and a prize.....he was happy with that. And I'm happy he actually opened his mouth and let the dentist have a look. We'll try again in 6 mo. and maybe it'll get better.

2 comments:

Adrienne said...

Oh the drama we go through as mamas! Why on earth would he need crowns for prevention!?? Glad you made it through that one!

Ria said...

Glad all went well, despite the screaming. $233 per tooth for crowns? whoa! I wonder what it's going to be when Matthew's 9 with inflation and the current state of things in health/dental insurance.