Should a baby tooth extraction have involved an anaesthetic injection?

[Gettingitdone26]

My child had a baby tooth extracted at the dentist using only numbing gel. The full root was still intact.

From what I've read online and from my own and my older child's experience, a numbing injection should have been used to numb the area around the root.

I have made a complaint to the Dental practice and the dentist has replied defending her use of only numbing gel.

Is this right? Should an injection have been used?

Thank you

Did your child appear to be in pain? Was the tooth wobbly already? I assume they avoid injections if they can - it’s not particularly nice for the child.

When my son was 6 he fell and needed stitches inside his lip. They tried and tried to inject him… it was impossible. He also needed dental work done and ultimately needed a GA. I imagine the dentist knows their job.

Injections are painful! Assuming your child wasn’t in pain I can’t see an issue with this.

No - numbing gel is fine for a baby tooth. The roots aren’t deep nor firm

was your child in pain?

I just recently had numbing gel to remove part of the root that had been left after losing the tooth, didn’t hurt one bit. Was your child in pain?

numbing gel is what my dentist puts on before injections and to be honest i would not like a child have an injection. even numb they are flipping awful and very painful. having that would have put them off the dentist which would be a shame if they dont mind so far

No it wasn't wobbly. She screamed and crawled off the chair and was crying and clinging to me.

I trusted the dentist and persuaded her back into the chair, but I regretted it once I saw the length of the root. It is twice as long as the tooth.

The root is twice the length of the tooth.

She was in a lot of pain, but I trusted the dentist knew what she was doing. I regretted this when I saw the root was twice the length of the tooth and it wasn't at all wobbly.

My experience with my son who had the same problem with his baby teeth was very different.

He sees a different dentist and she always uses numbing gel and then an injection, which I know is painful (I've had a lot of gum injections myself), but seems better than what happened to my daughter.

My child had the injection. The dentist had to really pull to get it out, would have been immensely painful without.

My dd (12yo) has just had 4 baby teeth removed and she had both numbing cream and then anaesthetic injection (done over two sessions). Two of the teeth came out with very little root and barely needed any tugging, but two of them had massive long roots and needed a lot more tugging to get them out. How old is your dc? Could it have been that she’s very young and the dentist was worried she wouldn’t sit still for the injections?

My child half knocked 2 teeth out and then had to get them extracted. They tried the numbing gel first and were really pulling them but rather didn't come out. He then got the injection as needed to use more force and if I'm honest the injection was worse than anything else. He said it really really hurt... more than the rest of the pulling.

The injections are awful (I refuse to have them myself) but they should have used one in this case or a G.A or sedation.

Mine recently had an extraction of non wobbly misplaced baby tooth. He had 2 injections and was still in agony. I think the dentist didnt inject into the correct place. It was awful.
Definitely should have had an injection if the tooth was firmly lodged which it would have been with an intact root.

My 5yo has had two extractions - both times the dentist used numbing gel followed by an injection and he then sailed through the extractions without any pain.

IME some dentists really seem to not know(or not care!) What they're doing.
Same as folk in any job, I suppose but when you're in charge of people's health and wellbeing it causes situations like this.
I am so so careful when picking a dentist.

Our dentist tried to take my daughter's out with only gel and no injection, had to stop because it was horrendous, so then did an injection, and kept saying "it doesn't hurt, don't worry" and my poor daughter was crying in pain and very much hurting. Don't know why the dentist thought she knew better about how it felt than the person whose mouth it was going on in. Horrible experience. Had to insist on sedation at a special dentist for the next ones. Big roots like a PP said, the teeth weren't wobbly at all, being parallel to the new adult teeth and not at all pushed out by them.

How old is your child?

My child needed 5 out (genetic reasons before anyone has a dig!) and she was put under general anaesthetic

I feel for your child and quite frankly it sound appalling and could put them off dentists completely i certainly would not return to this dentist.
I have an excellent dentist and injections do not have to be painful I have had loads and never particularly felt any. He explained he injects slowly thus reducing the pain

Dentist here. How old is your child and what tooth was it?
generally speaking I’d use the numbing gel before the injection. But would always inject.
the only exception might possibly be if the tooth was already really wobbly, the root already resorted and hanging by a thread. And even then…

Injections aren't really painful, they are barely a slight scratch unless they incompetent at it.

True. Well done injections shouldn’t be painful. My dd needed dental work from around age 3 sadly due to a genetic condition and when she was 14 she needed oral
surgery. She said she was worried about the injection, and I said “but you’ve had loads of them!” She didn’t realise that when the dentist said “I’m just putting your tooth to sleep” they were injecting anaesthetic! Like over 15-20 visits she’d had these over ten years 🤣

I had gel only as a kid when knocked a tooth into the middle of my mouth and it reimplanted
Hurt loads