Tooth ache and autistic child.

[PopcornPop]

Does anyone have an autistic child that refuses any dental health? My daughter is complaining of tooth ache and won't eat. She won't even let the dentist look in her mouth never mind anything else. She is in an extremely miserable mood and the holidays have been very difficult. I can't wait months and months for a referral to the hospital for sedation as in the mean time she is in a really bad mood and it's affecting the whole family as we can't go anywhere or do anything but she also isn't eating (she will eat a few things but not much and only soft stuff) what can I do because if she would let the dentist look I could get an emergency appointment for tomorrow but she won't let them look at all so we always just get referred to the hospital which takes months and I / she can't cope with this for months.

She needs referral to community dental services. Unfortunately everyone on the waiting list will have special needs and most are in pain. The waiting lists are extensive and the most the dentist can do is pain manage until they are seen, but the referral needs doing now.

The likelihood is she will need sedation or a general anaesthetic for treatment and the private possibilities for that for a child are very limited (there are a few in London and Manchester that I am aware of ) and likely to cost upwards £1000 , £2000 if GA needed.

In other words get the ball rolling now on referral . It's appalling that children in my area are waiting upwards of two years for treatment with sedation or ga.

Yes we’ve been through it before a few years back but the wait was 6 months to even be seen, by then the tooth needed to come out so couldn’t be saved and she was miserable for 6 months and refusing to eat anything solid. If she would allow the dentist to see her we wouldn’t be waiting months to have any treatment I wondered if anyone had been in this situation and found a way for their child to be seen at their local dentist or any ways to over come it.

How awful for her having to wait. I have no advice on getting the referral pushed through.

However my family dentist was brilliant with my ds. She let him.come in for loads for non appointments. Just let us look at the room, try the chair, read a story in there. After about 3 of these he agreed to open his mouth, whilst stood up as long as he could see her hands. Then he agreed to let her have a proper look. He then ended up having a tooth pulled out by her before pur specialist referral came through.

I’m sure that you’ve tried loads of things, so don’t want to give stupid suggestions, and sorry if you are well beyond what I’m suggesting. And I’m not sure what age your daughter is. But what worked for us after not being able to go to the dentist for a few years was taking a teddy. I had my teeth checked first whilst DD watched, then the dentist checked teddy on DDs lap, then she let him have a really quick check. I guess it’s a bit different because she didn’t actually have a problem with her teeth so a quick check was fine, and I don’t know how we would have managed if any treatment had been needed. But we did have a very supportive dentist (just a regular height street dentist) and we did have to repeat this a few times. She’s older now and we still have to go at the same time and I get my teeth checked first, but she does manage. Hope you find something that works, it’s awful seeing your kids in pain and not being able to get them the help they need.