Is anyone here a dentist, or does anyone know anything about dentistry? Does this sound right to you?

[SixSpotBurnet]

Am wondering if anyone can help me with this.

DS1 (aged nearly 9) has got a baby tooth at the front top that hasn't come out.

He banged his front teeth on his bed rail when he was three and the assumption is that that is the original cause.

He has been going to the dentist regularly for years but last year our regular dentist went on maternity leave. We asked the dentisit who took over her practice about the tooth when he was aged 7.

Firstly her advice was to leave it to see if it would come out by itself. Obviously it hasn't - it's still not even wobbly.

Last autumn when he was 8 we went back. She tried to x-ray him but seemed unable to do it and said she would have to refer us to the paed dentistry clinic at the Royal London. Of course it took ages for all this to grind its way through the system but eventually we got an appointment and he was duly x-rayed and examined by the consultant in January this year.

The consultant wrote a letter to the dentist recommending that she remove the baby tooth. She never got back to us, claiming that the letter never arrived, but I emailed our copy of the letter to one of her colleagues at the practice who seemed very concerned and recommended that the tooth be removed as soon as possible. An appontment was made for him last Saturday. I took DS1 along - he lay down on the chair but when she started trying to do the injection he kind of went tense - I was watching and he definitely didn't throw his head around or anything like that - but she immediately stopped and said that she thought she was going to damage his gum if she carried on and said she would have to refer us back to the paediatric dentistry dept again to have the tooth removed.

She then tried to get me to sign a form to say that the treatment had been completed!

Does this sound right? I cannot understand why

(a) she was unable to perform the x-ray in the first place

(b) she has been so feeble about trying to remove the tooth herself

(c) why she wanted me to sign a form to say the treatment had been completed.

Any advice?

I work for a dentist. This all sounds familiar and routine to me.

a) Sometimes its hard to access a kid's mouth enough to get a good X-ray especially if they are tense.

b) It's commonplace to refer a child for extraction, who is tense and nervous. We tend to do it if they are screaming like they are being murdered, but maybe he was clamping his mouth shut and not letting her in?

c) She was right to get you to sign the form, as her part of the treatment was completed, as she is not going to do the extraction.

Oh, thank you, HereComeTheGirls. I was getting very perturbed about all this. That's reassuring.

Do you know if they will take the tooth out under GA at the hospital?

Note by "treatment", the NHS means the entire course of treatment including the original examination he would have had. The word "treatment" is misleading, the form is really for the examination, if no treatment has been carried out.
A form is signed after an examination even if no further treatment is required..NHS rules.

I see. I thought it was odd because the receptionist actually queried it.

I am not sure what they will do. They can perhaps offer sedation rather than a general anaesthetic. I'm sure they will discuss it fully with you at the hospital. I think your dentist sounds like she has done the right thing. If your son was tense when just being examined he could have got really upset when the tooth was actually being distracted, and risked damage to his gum/mouth.

Probably just an ultra cautious receptionist. I tend to query everything with the dentist too as its easier to get everything sorted out when the patient is there in the practice, rather than send them away without signing the form and have to get them back

When my DS had a tooth out he had it done at a special dental clinic

They gave him a anesetic that just made him woozy in his hand

When I had to have teeth out at the same clinic including a canine tooth that was still up in my upper jaw {I have got a brace on now so that is why they had to take it out iyswim} I had the injection in my hand but cos that didn't really work cos I am voluptuous they gave me gas and air as well

Anyway my point is that for DS he wasn't tramatised at all and doesn't remember it afterwards

GOOD LUCK

btw DS was NHS but I was private

and I meant tooth was being "extracted"..I guess it was me who was DIStracted there Luckily I am not a dentist!!

I don't mean his hand was woozy I mean they injected him in his hand and his whole body went woozy

Where in the country are you?

The whole situation seemed so familiar to me that I actually wondered if you were at our practice..then I saw you were in London

Thanks very much to both of you. That is very reassuring.

If you are NW London you could try the same clinic

Any time hope the appointment comes through soon and it is all over for you.

we're in East London. I'm sure they will be very good at the Royal London - I just feel sorry for DS1, having had all this hanging over him for so long!

Oke doke

Hope it all works out for you

Then he can