Mom's Advice for Dental Treatment for 2 Year Old

Have you gotten a 2nd opinion? Why does a 2 year old, who only has baby teeth, need multiple fillings and extractions? Does she have medical/dental issues?

I would definitely look for a 2nd opinion on this if you haven't already.

My daughter was 18 months old when she had this same thing. She ended up with two front tooth crowns and filling on either side tooth. The anestesia was a little freaky to be honest. She sat on my lap and they gave her a shot in the thigh. Within two minutes her eyes dialated wide open and she literally went limp. That was the scariest part.
Then they very quickly layed her on the table started and IV and hooked her up to monitors. The rest was easy. It took my daughter about a full 4-5hrs to be back to her old self. You cannot leave your child unattended during that time. She was so week that she could not have lifted her own head or caughed let alone walk. Don't feed her anything. Then she literally snapped out of it and was totally normal and fine. She didn't even seem to have any mouth pain and ate like a little piggy. :)
We had to shop around a lot to find a dentist that would do parceline crowns and filling. They did an amazing job and you would have no idea she ever had that issue. If you can afford it its worth it to get parceline. I see kids with silver all the time now that I'm tuned into it and its super noticeable.

My DD was 4 when she had anesthesia and several fillings. We were told to expect a possible baby root canal, but it turned out not to be needed. I was really nervous about it and I felt TERRIBLE, but come to find out that not only did my SD need it done, I had bad enamel as a toddler. My dentist said that some people just have softer enamel than others. Our dentist doesn't do the anesthesia in the office. They do it in the OR in the hospital. I would talk to the anesthesiologist about your concerns and ask what are the pros and cons of doing it in the office. Many teens and adults go through similar in an office for wisdom tooth extraction, so it's not unheard of, but I would want to be reassured that the office was OK.

I also hope you talk to the dentist about why she needs all this work and how to make sure it never happens again.

And FWIW, I would not solely blame the nursing. My DD nursed til 2.5 but didn't have cavities til she was older. I had problems and I only nursed 4 months. Maybe your DD just got the short end of the enamel gene. Even if she nurses to sleep after all this, brush her teeth and/or wipe out her mouth with a soft cloth to get the milk off. At nearly 2, her bedtime routine can be shifted to end with a story vs falling asleep nursing.

We did the general in the OR because our alternative was 4 visits in the office and nobody thought DD would sit through more than one, if she managed to get through one at all. I figured that the OR was the better option - once and done, and all she remembers is "I didn't really like the hospital much" but she's not freaked out by the dentist or the hospital. They give them "goofy juice" to make their memories fuzzy.

We had to pay some out of pocket, but were put on a payment plan. Medical ins. covered the hospital and dental covered most of the rest.

Anesthesia is not something to be taken lightly. I don't care if they are 'trained by children's hospital'. I want to know what anesthesia they will be using and do they have the equipment to RESUSCITATE your child if they have an adverse reaction? Has anyone in your family had an adverse reaction to anesthesia?

I was faced with a similar situation years ago. I got a second opinion and the second dentist did not see ANY of the issues the first dentist wanted to put my child under for. I would definitely get another opinion from an independent dentist and if possible, postpone treatment until your daughter can get by with local anesthesia.

I just did this for my kiddo. And I'm so glad I did. My kiddo had the same problem - massive decay from bottle rot & poor enamel. He needed two extractions, 6 crowns, and 2 filings. (Bad parenting award here.)

I had his procedure done in the hospital and because my dentist submitted letter of medical necessity for anesthesia (not possible to do that much work on a kid his age w/o anesthesia) my medical insurance covered the anesthesia and all hospital fees. Out of pocket for anesthesia, I paid $100.

Check with your medical insurance - they may cover the costs if you have it done in a hospital setting. Or if they won't, some children's hospitals do this so often that they have a flat fee for self-pay, which includes the anesthesia & hospital costs (the children's hospital near me had their fee set at $2750).

My dental fees, on the other hand, we're extraordinary. My dental insurance sucks so I got almost no coverage there and paid $5950 out of pocket. That was after a 20% professional courtesy discount since we work at the same hospital.

It was all worth it. His teeth look great & he had stopped eating (drinking more and more milk instead), and he's eating great now.

Good luck.

I would get a second opinion. Our daughter went to the dentist with us when she was 1 but at 2 she started going to a pediatric dentist.

You are talking about baby teeth. Are they so rotted that this is the only course of action per the dentist? A 2yr old should not have an issue as severe as you describe unless there is an underlying reason as are not aware of.

I just can't grasp that a 2yr old needs fillings and multiple extractions with baby teeth. Something else must be going on here. Keep in mind, the baby teeth start coming out around age 4+. Granted, if there is some sort of infection due to all the decay, I get why the Dr. has this opinion because infections in the mouth can go on to create worse health issues.

2nd opinion please and more info on why she has this problem.

I would get a second opinion. I would NEVER do that in a dentist office. Why at 22 months are her teeth so bad. This actually horrifies me. I would want medical backup at my fingertips in case of emergency.

I'm not sure about the dental work. My kids were more than 3 years old when they first saw the dentist.

But I would definitely not be concerned about the anesthesia. Our little guy had to have surgery when he was 10 months old, and his surgeon told us that children are far safer under general anesthesia, provided they have a pediatric anesthesiologist, than adults.

The anesthesiologist is very well trained and very knowledgeable of children and their needs. Your daughter will be fine!

I would first take your little one to a pediatric dentist. Does your daughter hav ea cleft lip/palate that she needs work done on? It is not really a very usual thing for dental work to be done on a child that age. So unless she has extremely rotton teeth I don't understand why you would be having fillings and extractions. ask for a second opinion.

One of these days I am going to take a picture of the inside of one of our mobile anesthesia vans and figure out how to post it here. Pretty much we have four of those huge white vans with nothing but medical equipment in it. I believe two are pediatric, two for adult. Sorry folks but this is the world we live in, insurance will not cover a dental procedure at a hospital so to meet the need we cram a hospital in the back of a van!

I don't get the trained at children's hospital. We have six anesthetists that specialized in pediatric anesthesia, they do our peds calls and our peds mobile.

I digress

My sons were born with weak enamel on some teeth, not my girls, odd. This is totally genetic, there is nothing I could have done differently to stop it. My older son it was just his front teeth so we just kept it from getting worse and waited until the adult teeth came in. With my younger son it was his molars, nearly all of them. We had to get it done or he couldn't eat. Those molars don't come in, well for my son he was almost nine.

So I am saying if this is just front teeth don't do it, just cut her food up. They are the first adult teeth to come in. If it is the molars then you need to. My son doesn't even remember it.

I am not in the medical field but I work for doctors in their billing office. Yes, I trust them with my children's lives.

My nephew had to have general anesthesia at a very young age because his needed dental work was extensive and it was best to get it all done in one go.

There are risks, but sometimes the need outweighs it.

both of my boys have had teeth pulled. My younger son had IV sedation due to the fact that he had abscessed molars that had to be extracted. My older son had 4 teeth pulled without the IV and just had his mouth numbed. But, he was 8, not 2. At two, even if it is just a couple of simple extractions I would use some form of sedation.

Our pediatric dentist always puts the kids out with general anesthesia. It's so much easier. They go in, go to sleep, wake up and it's all done, they're hungry and want to go play and eat.

With general anesthesia they should simply wake up. With gas types of anesthesia they often wake up and they're still under the influence. IT's super scary for them. It's common side effects.

Our guy has had a couple of dental procedures with general anesthesia and then he's had tubes put in too.

The dental procedures were easy peasy. The tubes were crazy. He woke up screaming and grabbed on to me and wouldn't let me go. I was driving so my husband took him and sat in the middle seat of the van. He screamed the whole way to the pharmacy. While I was in getting his meds he came out of it. He was back to normal in about an hour after waking up but overall the whole gas anesthesia was horrible for us.

I think you should listen to the doc. General anesthesia is not a big deal and getting all the work done at once, in a few minutes, is so much easier.