Any Pediatric dentist here? I NEED HELP!

[Teresaann24]

My little girl has been going to the dentist called kool smiles for the last year. She had a ruptured tooth that was fixed 6 months ago and no other cavities.

She back here recently a bit of the tooth they fixed before had came out and on the other tooth started to decay and she had a faint cavity on her back top right side of her mouth on a tooth. They wanna put 4 caps on her teeth 2 in the back and 2 on the frount. Now my insurance will not pay for the clear caps they are $300 a peice they will only cover the silver caps.

I do not really wanna have the silver caps on her frount teeth. I am wondering from someone who knows dentistry who can help me with a different way i can suggest to my dentist on how to protect her frount teeth???

 

[wadek2008]

I know nothing about dentistry but are these permenant teeth?

 

[Teresaann24]

No they are baby teeth but they wanna save them because they do not want to remove them and mess up her speech.

 

[Judy]

I am 65 years old and have had my share of dental problems. I have 14 natural teeth left, and a partial. What the heck is a ruptured tooth? Have never heard of such. How on earth would a tooth rupture?

Why would a bit of a tooth they had fixed come out? 20 years later, maybe, but this is a child....

Kool smiles??? Since when do professional dentists use names like that?

Are we talking about baby teeth or adult teeth?

Silver caps on front teeth? Come now. I know very well that dentistry has gotten better than that. I have tooth colored caps on a couple of back teeth that no one but my dentist will ever see.

Sounds to me like you need to find a decent dentist. I wish Mahonri were not on vacation; I would suggest you PM him. Maybe you should anyway. I really think you are being conned.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Ask them about "bonding" the teeth.

I have to have it done every so often to make sure the bonding remains sturdy.

(Broke out part of my front two teeth from an AWFUL bike wreck. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet...I wouldn't be here now.)

Anyway, the bonding takes about 1 hour...they have to use the shots...EEEK!!!! but I haven't had to have them bonded unless they've broken out from oh say....a gobstopper.....

Anyway...it should be able to hold her until her teeth fall out.

http://www.aboutcosmeticdentistry.com/procedures/dental_bonding/index.html

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Save baby teeth? Not mess up her speech?

Sorry. I do not buy this.

Get another opinion. Ask around and find out who is a reasonable (not just financially reasonable, though that is a good clue, but sensible) dentist in your area. Sounds absurd to me.

Kids talk around missing teeth all the time; they lose the baby teeth while they are learning speech patterns. If that caused speech problems in adults, we would all be talking funny.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
But this is about adult teeth, having occurred in a bike wreck.

Baby teeth are a whole different matter. A dentist has to work awfully hard to sell me on this, and I have always had dental care done for myself and my son. I did allow a baby tooth to be pulled on one occasion; it does happen. But now really -- caps and fillings?

Protect the front teeth? For what? They are usually the first to go. And I certainly don't buy the speech thing.

Dentistry is an extremely lucrative profession. I understand that the education to practice it is expensive. I also feel we must be educated and proactive consumers in this field. Please do not allow one person's stated opinion to gouge your bank account.

You need another opinion!

If you live anywhere near a dental school, this is one way to learn the realities about what is needed, and to contain costs. Please investigate.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Quote:
But this is about adult teeth, having occurred in a bike wreck.

Baby teeth are a whole different matter. Why would you have work done on teeth that will fall out in a year or two? A dentist would have to work awfully hard to sell me on this. And I have always had dental care done for myself and my son.

You need another opinion!

It's her kid...not mine. I'd say that the kid just needs to lose the teeth and be done with it. If the nerves are exposed...then bonding may be a good idea.

I had to get bonding done because my nerves were exposed on mine. I was just assuming that the nerves on her daughter's were exposed as well.

 

[bheila]

I don't see how it will mess up her speech. My daughter is 6 years old, she lost her 2 top front teeth and 1 of her bottom teeth in a 5 day span. That was 4 weeks ago. She talks just fine

She now has 1 loose tooth on the bottom in the front and a loose molar. Pull those suckers out!

We've all lost teeth and talked a little funny at one point

ETA: I don't know how old your daughter is or if she's talking really well yet. Maybe that's why the dentist talks about it messing up her speech.

 

[Judy]

rodriguezpoultry, I don't necessarily disagree with you. I certainly agree that exposed nerves would need to be dealt with. It just sounded to me like she was not dealing with anything that uncomfortable, so I made an assumption as well.

I agree, basically: let them fall out, if possible. And do what is needed in the meantime. It just sounded to me like what is really needed and what some dentist is proposing were very different things.

I certainly am not proposing that the child should endure tooth pain. Been there, done that.