140 week waiting list for emergency dental surgery!

[Getthebag2023]

Hi all,

I'm genuinely at a loss of what to do here. My son (2yo) was born 13 weeks prem, and whilst he's mostly healthy, the one lingering issue is that his teeth break really easily. The dentists say its because calcium was prioritised to his bones and vital organs. We are fastidious about brushing but it's not done much good.

Now at 2 and a half, my son has a recurring dental abcess and several other teeth which have broken. Thankfully he isn't in too much pain right now, but the dentist referred him for extractions under a general anasthaetic of the broken teeth and we were informed there's a 140 week wait for paediatric dental surgery on the NHS. Which means he would literally start school before the surgery!!

We have looked at going private and it's looking to come to around 7-10k. We can make it work if we have no other options, but it's definitely an amount I balked at.

I was just wondering if there's any dentists/parents with more experience or insight who could advise on our options? I don't want my baby to suffer for 2 and a half years!

That's a shocking wait.. I would pay private to be honest just so he's not in pain.. but it's ridiculous that the NHS wouldn't prioritise this.

Sadly I think this is pretty standard across the country. I know the waiting list where I am is also over 2 years . It's disgraceful and I feel so sad to think of all the children suffering whilst they wait.

I am speechless at that wait time. I'm so sorry OP that you're in this situation.

It makes you fear needing dental treatment for your kids.

Has the dentist said what would happen if you waited for the broken teeth to fall out naturally? And would the surgery put a stop to the abscesses?

We are in a similar position OP. Though luckily my child is not yet in any pain, we've been advised he will likely need extraction under general of two very hypoplastic teeth. Wait time just to see a consultant 18 month minimum. I am planning to research (safe, high quality) options for private paediatric dental procedures abroad as a next port of call. Might not work out significantly cheaper than going private here with flight costs, insurance etc. but I think it's worth a look.

Goes without saying the state of paediatric dentistry in this country is disgraceful and my heart breaks for parents and children who can't afford private treatment.

So the abcessed tooth will not get better until its extracted, we will just have to manage with antibiotics best we can. The risk is that the other broken teeth can also become abcessed. With prolonged abcesses, they are a risk of damaging the incoming adult teeth, or at worst turning septic if they become antibiotic resistant.

I've just booked my son in for an appointment with a specialist Paediatric clinic in London called Toothbeary. They have amazing reviews for extraction for under 5s without a general, just with inhaled/iv sedation. The initial consultation is £225 but if it gets the issue sorted quickly and is less than 7k.... I'll take it. Maybe worth exploring @wherethewaterisdarker?

Been there and I'm sorry, its shit. There's a postcode lottery as to dental wait lists which just seems so unfair. We had to go private. Total cost about 4.5k. Luckily my parents helped with the cost. My dd would have lost a front adult tooth had we waited as another was impacted and growing in to it.

Inhalation sedation with nitrous oxide and oxygen only works in older children usually a minimum of age 6. Gases are inhaled through the nose so the patient needs to sit and be able to do this. Intravenous sedation isn’t performed in under 18 year olds as it’s to unpredictable.

There are only a few clinics in the UK specilised enought to offer non GA sedation for paeds - Tooth Beary is one of them. Unlike a lot of kids his age my son actually has a medical history of IV sedation from when he was in NICU, which hopefully will help assess whether he can have it or not for this, and rules out adverse reactions etc!

It's not ideal of course, but there's no risk free options here, so hoping a consultation will help clarify our options. And if it turns out we just need to pay for a GA, we will.

Private really is your only option. In my area the wait is two to three years , even for small children in pain.

The problem is you need a full operating theatre and can only do three or four in a day , and after covid operating theatre time is precious with eg cancer operations given priority.

This means all you can do is give antibiotics to suppress symptoms whilst waiting.

Update to any that are interested - my son had the work done today at ToothBeary in Richmond under IV sedation and couldn't have gone more smoothly. All work completed within 40 mins and he woke up happy - cost about £3000 all in with a 0% interest payment plan over 12 months. So happy with the job and timescale, plus it cost a lot less than initially quoted for a GA. So if anyone is reading this wondering how to help their child, I'd defo recommend!