Dental advice please?!

[chickywoo]

Took my 5.5 dd to dentist today she has had a lot of pain (intermittently) last few days, she has a filling already in this tooth no swelling or abscess but dentist says tooth is wobbly and shouldn't be at this age so will continue to cause problems will need to come out. We know that Dd would not tolerate extraction with local anesthetic - struggle to even get her in the dentist chair! Dentist said could be done under GA at hospital and as she has 2 other teeth with small cavities they would take these at same time ok makes sense I thought, wouldn't want to have to have procedure repeated if she had problems with them later on etc, but the part that confuses me is that she said they also will have to move the healthly teeth at the opposite site to the bad teeth as it has to be symmetrical? Is this correct? Or has my dentist got OCD? Referral done and waiting for hospital appt which will be a few months, but now I'm thinking why have I agreed to her having 6 teeth out when really only one is the problem? Is there another way?

Just a shameless little bump

You haven't consented to anything yet. At this stage it's just a referral.
The paediatric (hospital/community) dentist will assess your child initially & take radiographs if possible. After this, you will be taken through the appropriate treatment options & informed consent gained. Just to be clear the dentist to whom your child is being referred does not work upon prescription from your general dentist; they will assess independently.

The type of extractions you mention are balancing/ compensating extractions-it all depends on which tooth it is, so best leave that to the speciality dentist.

It may be possible to do simple fillings or stainless steel crowns ( the non-prep type) ahead of the GA extractions; which may reduce extraction numbers. Number of factors including cooperation influence this. A lot of children do manage to have treatment in specialist paediatric depts; that they just wouldn't entertain in General Dental Practice.

I have some experience as I work for the service who do the GAs in the hospital. It's not entirely necessary...I would let the referral go through, then you can discuss it with the team who will be removing the teeth, they can change the treatment plan from their end.
Sometimes they do this if crowding is bad and the child may have braces in the future. But definitely not always done! Also this would usually only be decided once we had an opinion from an orthodontist.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for your replys has put
My mind at ease that I will have the opportunity to discuss it all again, I did ask lots of questions whilst at the dentist but feel a bit like I was being pushed out of the door, apart from the 'bad mum' routine advice re diet brushing etc! Dd is 3rd of 4 children the only one with any dental problems but still makes me feel like I've gone wrong somehow with dd's teeth!! Another thing I worry about is the GA - as a nurse I have witnessed all being well many times but never with anything in the mouth and never with children - makes me feel sick with worry about the airway management! Wish there was another way, because awful for her to be in so much pain with this tooth!!

Try not to worry about the GA. They are under for a very short time. They use a throat pack so nothing can go down the throat and the support team have suction permanently in the mouth. Everything's obviously counted in and out so nothing is left behind and you get to take the little teeth home in a pot afterward for the tooth fairy!
Don't feel like a bad parent these things happen! Some dentists don't have a great bedside manner!