Don't judge me, but 2yo in pain and clearly needs a filling. Dentists dragging their feet.

[Lexilicious]

Sorry this is long and I am quite upset about it.

2 and a half year old DS has a great big cavity in a lower molar. Felt bad enough that it was found at his first ever check up when he was already over 2y, and then the dentist pissed me off by refusing to believe that he doesn't eat chocs/sweets/fizzy drinks (we live in a proper Greggs/Fruitshoot central). I wanted to know if there could be some deficiency that should be looked into rather than just this symptom. I got nowhere. So we upped our game with brushing and made sure he continued to have zero sweets/choc/fizzy.

Next checkup was due in March but DS was complaining of pain in the tooth in Jan and I could see how big the cavity was so I took him in early. Tooth definitely needs to be filled, and by now I'm fairly sure that it must have been caused by a physical knock/chip off the corner which is now open to decay. Dentist said they'd do the referral straight away to a clinic that can do child tooth work under mild sedation. Fine.

Local sedation clinic still hadn't got the details a week later, so I've chased and chased. Once they get his details, they say he's awfully young and they can't sedate a child under 15kg. So I've got to go back to the original dentist to get a fresh referral for hospital dentistry - presumably a paediatric anaesthetist.

Receptionist (after a load of faff where I have to hunt around for NHS numbers rather than her just looking on the cover of his file) then tells me, "we'll send the referral to the Community Dental Health Team and they'll see whether they'll take him on and let you know". what?? I'm not happy with this as DS is still in pain and I am not waiting for him to put on 1.5kg before I can go back to the (nice, calm, efficient-sounding) dental clinic who do this work under sedation.

Anyone have experience of pushing for NHS dentistry for toddlers? - I really want to hasten this treatment before the cavity gets worse. I really don't want to end up with the possibility of removal of the molar because from all I've read that's going to rearrange his whole set of teeth and cause problems when the adult teeth start pushing through.

DS had this and he just had resin filling, no problem. has fallen off a few times and gone a bit black now, I think same as you a chip as no other dental problems since. he's almost 7 now and must have been about 3.5 years ago it first came to light (pain). Try the resin first you can always push for the other treatment later if it doesn't work.

Thanks for that info - I had been looking into the different types of fillings. Trouble is I'm not even at that point yet - going crazy trying to just get him seen by someone who will actually do something!

they just stuffed it in at the surgery on the spot. Can you ring dentist receptionist and ask?

Even with us being positive and preparing him as well we could, DS was so terrified he had to be held down by two of us just to get the dentist a look inside. Not a chance of them being able to do the actual treatment. He's too young to really explain what's going on. As far as he's concerned there's a scary bloke who doesn't introduce himself, take the mask off his face, explain what's going to happen, just coming towards him bearing shiny poking tools aiming for his mouth.

I'm changing dentists once this is done with.

If the hole is big enough for you to notice and it's giving pain, there is probably going to be nerve involvement.
At 2.5 your son is very young to have fillings under sedation. They have to be able to cooperate and the sedation only acts to reduce anxiety the dental procedure is still the same as a filling in an adult. Although you can just push a filling in for it to have any chance of it lasting the decay needs removing as well.

Prepare yourself that the tooth may well be recommended for extraction and they may want to balance it (take the tooth out on the other side as well) to get even tooth movements.

If you have a Dental Hospital near you you could ask to be referral to the children's dental department to see a consultant paediatric dentist. Otherwise it's normally the Community Clinics which you've already been referred to.

MIllymolly has just said everything I was thinking. If there is that much pain a filling is unlikely to be successful, especially as that tooth will be one of the last to be replaced with an adult tooth so needs to be there another 10 years.

Fillings can also 'seal in' decay and cause infections, so not brilliant, esp if pain involved
Can they use spacers if they remove? No idea but might be worth asking

Fillings can also 'seal in' decay and cause infections, so not brilliant, esp if pain involved
Can they use spacers if they remove? No idea but might be worth asking

Thanks Milly, obviously not what I want to hear but given that when I first took him in I had no idea the pillar to post journey I was going to have to take to get it fixed I clearly need a bit of reality!! I will just have to wait and see what happens next. I've looked up the community dental special care and they sound lovely so I hope they take up the referral.

Also thx everyone else too!

Glad to help.
Once you have all this sorted, have a think about your son's diet. If he doesn't have any junk it may well be grazing in between meals that has caused the decay. Children that eat frequent snacks such as fruit, yoghurt, raisin, milk, juice) can get decay as these all contain hidden sugars (fruit sugars, milk sugars). It would be worth while looking at his diet to see if you can work out the cause then you can stop any further problems.

it can just be bad luck ie genetics or problems in pregnancy though, so don't beat yourself up about it