Sammy's had a tooth that has been rather bothersome...or so I thought. The truth is, we don't know. But all of a sudden she's been grinding her teeth and it is completely ooc (out of control)!!! The adult tooth had already come in but the baby tooth was just still in there...it was getting to the point where it was twisted and pointed directly into her lip. Do I know it bothers her? No. But she's been grinding her teeth and playing with it a whole lot. So, why not try and see what's going on?
We go to a pediatric special needs dentist. I knew that if she needed to have a procedure done, this dentist was equipped with everything for her and if needed, could be done at the hospital. But to my utter delight, the dentist said this could be a quick procedure done right there in the office. So, a few weeks later, we returned.
Here she thinks she's just taking a day off school. No. We're headed to the dentist sweetheart.
All ready to smile for the dentist!
They strapped Sammy into a little papoose and then placed a weighted blanket over her. She was so calm and compliant. I sat on the chair with her, by her feet. But she was so tough, I'm not sure she even needed me.
She didn't complain, but she wanted to know what was going on...everywhere.
After she was all numb, they pulled the tooth. It took all of about 5 seconds!
Despite the hung over look, there were no tears, no screams.
She was great. But I kept her home so I could make sure she didn't bite her numb lip off.
I don't know if the tooth needed to be pulled. I don't know if it was bothering her. I don't know if it was worth all the trouble. There's so much about Samantha that I don't know. Think about all the stuff about our children that they don't tell us, that they hold in. This is Samantha times 1,000 because she doesn't have the ability to say one word to me. She doesn't complain. She doesn't point. She doesn't have words. And so, I get her tooth pulled because that's what I can do. I use my best guess. And sometimes, that's all I can do. But luckily, it is something I can do. So, this appointment was a success. I got her tooth pulled, we spent the day together, and...my little girl is still grinding her teeth. eeeeeee
2 comments:
Hey, I'm a friend of Marseille's-that's how I saw your blog forever ago. I just had a question for you. You said you took Samantha to a special needs dentist-I didn't even know that was a thing! My son is on the autism spectrum and we've been taking him to a regular dentist without much success. He won't tolerate x-rays, and when we recently tried to have a tooth pulled on him (it got jammed into his gums) it was a super traumatic experience where he screamed the whole time and they couldn't even get his mouth numbed to begin. So we ended up going the anesthesia route. Anyway, are these dentists pretty common? And what do they do that is different than regular ones? Anyway, thank you! Your family is beautiful!
Danielle. I'm so sorry for your bad experiences at the dentist. Truly it can be a traumatic experience for anyone, but when you put any kind of special need on top of it...it can be so scary. I have used 2 different pediatric dentists in the past with special needs experience. The first was in Washington. I called dentists and just asked them if they had experience working with children with special needs. I explained who Sammy is and some of her struggles. I just went with who I felt the best with. Here, at this location, I somehow got a few referrals from friends I think...then I looked on their websites. I've found that oftentimes pediatric dentists will write down if they have experiences in the special needs world. You could also just ask around...therapists would know. Pediatricians may have a good idea too. Good luck. It's so rough to try to manufacture the best experience :(
Honestly, I'm not sure if there's much difference btwn a pediatric dentist and a pediatric dentist with experience with children with special needs. Our experience has always been really good. Extreme patience. And for Sammy who has cerebral palsy, they had things on hand like weighted blankets and other things to help calm her body. But maybe other pediatric dentist have that too? I don't know. Good luck.
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