Fretting about son's dental treatment (extractions) - help!

[Talith]

Me fretting not him! Although he's anxious too understandably.

My 12 year old needs to have four teeth removed to have his braces and they're really reluctant to offer a general anaesthetic.

I had the same done when I was his age but just with local anaesthetic injection and I remember it clearly and they aren't good memories at ALL.

I've also had sedation as an adult (which is the only other thing they offer) and that made very little difference to me. And the pain and the dry socket afterwards was grim. So yes, my experiences are colouring things.

Am I unreasonable to pursue anaesthesia, even though the dentist made me feel like the worst mother in the world for contemplating putting my son through it when the dentist didn't consider it necessary. I know there's risks, honestly I do, I just want to prevent him going through something I have and which I know can be truly horrid.

If your kids had extractions without how did they cope? how long to recover? I'm getting myself in such a flap about it and I don't want him to pick up on it.

My DD had 4 adult teeth removed under local in two sessions (two weeks apart) and was OK - she had one day off school after the second set as that was the more difficult one to get out (the first set of extractions luckily had an inset day afterwards!) and some painkillers afterwards. It was sore the day after, but she coped well. This was before a brace, the extractions were in December last year when she was almost 12. It sounds the same teeth as your DS, the pre-molars.

Her teeth were really crowded on one side and we are only somewhere between a third or halfway through the brace treatment and they look better already!

I think it would be worth giving the local a try and if he's too wriggly then waiting for GA - but it might be quite a wait, as has already been said. My DD's dentist is a private one who used numbing gel on the gums before the injection so she didn't feel anything - DD hated the taste of the gel so much she asked to try the injections without it the second time but I vetoed that one!

Whichever way you do it OP, I hope it goes well.

I remember having a tooth next to my canine out in the morning under local and being gutted I wasn’t allowed to go to school in the afternoon, so I guess it wasn’t that bad! He’ll be fine. You were unlucky with the dry socket but not everyone gets it so he prob won’t. I was on aspirin (back in the day now it’s paracetamol) and had no pain. For a back tooth I’d perhaps be more worried as they have big roots.

He will be absolutely fine. Most children cope really well with orthodontic extractions

He wont get a general anaesthetic for orthodontic extractions, they are elective extractions and not necessary and therefore cannot be done under GA. The only time we have offered ortho extractions under GA is for DC with severe SN and functional issues. It costs the NHS something like 1000 for a GA for tooth extractions

Thank you I am getting my head around it more now. I don't like it, and want what's least awful for DS, but I can see a general anaesthetic isn't a short cut, really.