ds having back molar extracted with local

[sununu]

it's an adult tooth, the back molar at the top, and the dentist says it will probably have to come out, under local.

ds (7) currently likes going to the dentist and hasn't really taken it in (dentist did say he would try to fill it first so ds is saying I'm having a filling! as if it's a kind of treat!). i don't want to scare him but i wonder what I should be preparing him for. surely it won't be very pleasant. I can only find references to milk teeth being pulled, which must be much less rooted, or teeth under general. any reassurance please?

DD needed a local and front tooth extraction at 5. The nastiest bit is always the needle!! I told DD to keep looking at the light and started counting and distracting until the stinging stopped. Not pleasant but we managed it.

I had a number of adult teeth removed to fit a brace (had an overcrowded jaw). The needle isn't great, but the worst thing for me was the sound of the tooth as it was extracted. It's almost like a tree being pulled out of the ground, really creaky.

The other thing was the numbness of the face lasting a few hours - resulting in extravagant dribbling - and the horrid fascination of sticking my tongue in the hole . The pain didn't last long for me though.

Sounds like you have a nice dentist. Be prepared for DS wanting to keep the tooth btw

Do they have adult molar at 7? I thought they only came around 12? When I discussed fissure sealing with my dentist for my son who is 7, my dentist said that I could wait till the adult molar around 12 o do it now and then.

gordonpym - Maybe you're getting mixed up with when they're expected to have all their permanent teeth? My DS1 (11yrs) already has his complete set (except for wisdom teeth) and the dentist seemed to think that was a bit earlier than average.

The first adult molars come through at about 6 years old on average, and they erupt behind their milk teeth, before any of their first molars are lost.