IV Sedation For 3 Year Old's Dentistry

My poor Tatertot inherited my lousy teeth and he has three cavities in his back upper molars. His dentist (who I won't name and who I really like) has recommended that he be sedated for the cavity treatment. They're big so with baby teeth they can't really sustain a large filling so they clean out the decay and cap them. It doesn't look like the nerves are involved so he probably does not need baby root canals (pulpectomy). The sedation is done in his office by a roving anesthesiologist.

I don't like this. I don't like it at all.

First of all, he's really good. He sits still and listens at the doctor. He had a full cleaning the other day and he did better than I do. I don't like the idea of sedating him for as long as 2.5 hours in an office with no crash cart, emergency support, etc.

I've already talked to two people whose dentists did this same treatment on their kids with novicaine and a little nitrous oxide. I'd love to hear from any of you if you've had any similar issues and how you handled it.

Also...and this is very secondary of course...the anesthesiologist doesn't participate with any insurance and his bill will be $2K. My anesthesiologists were paid $900 for my c-sections with spinal blocks and epidurals and 24 hour monitoring. This feels like highway robbery.

 

My youngest had IV sedation on two different occasions. I didn't like it at first but it actually went well. I knew he would never be able to sit still for an extended period of time. Particularly for filling a cavity. You can PM me if you want more details.

 

I would be happy to talk to you too... we went through the same thing with my son who had 7 cavities done at the same time. I am glad that we did the sedation dentistry and got it all done at once. And for the insurance, we used our medical for this. I can check the details but I remember that the age of the child and type of procedure were mitigating factors but we ended up having most of this covered by insurance.

I do not remember the drug used off hand, it might be ketamine (don't quote me on that). Everything went well and my son was not unconscious, just out of it. We were with him the whole time. I think the reason why dentist do this, has partly to do with the amount if time and number of visits it would take for doing it the other way. No 3 or 4 year old is likely to sit for an hour or so for that type of treatment (my opinion).