child's dentist visit
 

I just talked to a neighbor of mine, who is taking his 5 year old for a dental visit today. He said last year, they had to cap one of her teeth, and the dentist gave her nitrous oxide, then VELCROED her down to the exam table, to do the work. Has anyone here heard of this procedure? It sounds like torture to me.

Sounds a little extreme. Especially for a baby tooth that's going to fall out in a couple years anyway. But I'm not in a position to second guess what the dentist thought was best. Did the dentist do it without the parents' permission?

No, I'm sure he gave permission, but it's not something I would allow without a very good reason.

If my kid needed a procedure done, they would have to velcro him down, including one tightly across his forehead. It's hard enough to hold him when the doctor just wants to look at him.

Velcro is also common in the hospital during any operation when you will be even partly awake. During my first c-section, the anesthesiologist called them "reminder straps," to remind me not to try to get up. I laughed at him. But think about it, if you're somewhat high on nitrous or anything else, and you have a panic attack (a reasonable side effect,) you might decide you just have to get up and walk away right then in the middle of a procedure, and you could cause serious damage to yourself.

Or flail around, non-lucidly. Nothing extreme about it; last thing you need is an unintentional movement on the part of the patient.

You should see what they do to brain surgery patient. :eek:

I've never seen anyone strapped into a dentist chair here...or heard of it either.

You merkins have some weird customs.

Apart from the "why they would bother to cap a milk tooth on a 4yo", the rest sounds perfectly sesnsible for the reasons CF gave. Hector had laughing gas when he had two extractions a few months ago. they didn't strap him down, but he kept forgetting not to touch his face because he was so out of it.

A friend of mine is a pediatric dentist and I will ask her about the velcro. I once asked why they bother with teeth that are going to fall out anyway and she said something to the effect of they help hold the space in the jaw for the next teeth coming and if the root gets all rotted it causes problems for the adult teeth.

well the adult teeth absorb the roots of the milk teeth, but by 4, you'd think that process would be pretty much all done. maybe not in this kids case.

When Hector had his head stitched, they didn't use velcro, they have professional holders-down (hold-downers?) ...fully grown men who fold their arms and lie on the child (not full body weight) with one elbow on each shoulder to stop them from moving at all. i would have though it would scare the kids, but Hector just fell asleep once he could no longer see the TV.

I assume the tooth was capped because it was chipped?
A boy at school had something similar, because he fell and chipped his tooth and there was a sharp edge. I don't remember what word was used, I was too young, but I remember thinking he had a false tooth and that was really funny because false teeth were what Grandads have.

It all sounds pretty reasonable to me too. If the child had been secured with bungee cord or rope I'd be concerned, but velcro makes a lot of sense.

If a milk tooth is lost/removed prematurely it can cause problems because the adult tooth is still soft, and the adjacent teeth can easily move into the space left.

I've never heard of velcro here, but I would think if it was necessary, its cool if the child isnt distressed because they are out of it.