Dental Question - Multiple Visits for Repairing Cavities for 4-Yr-old?

My son just had 4 fillings and they did them all in 1 visit with the nitrous and the whole thing only took about 30 minutes. I would just do it all at once and get it over with

Get a second opinion...
when doing a filling, basically the doctor will need to shave the tooth down to where the filling is located. then clean the decay out... then pack the composite or amalgam in. the doctor usually administers an anesthetic because he/she needs to get into the dentin which is a sensitive place and can be very uncomfortable for even a grown person.
for two teeth on a five year old, and depending on how disciplined your son is... because, and i don't like to use this word because is sounds scarier then it is, the doctor will be doing some drilling... i think that it will probably take 30min to an hour after the doctor begins.... anesthetic, if administered, should take 5 minutes.
now the reason I am asking you to get a second opinion is because you're not comfortable with your doctor already and on top of that, low-cost clinics are notorious for doing procedures to get an extra buck.... however, not all of them are like that. And the two appointment schedules may be because that dentist is more comfortable with doing it that way on a five year old. BUT a second opinion wouldn't hurt.
with that said... brushing is never enough for anybody. my suggestion is to have him floss regularly and hold off on the sweets, juices, sodas, etc. and if he does have any of these just have him swish his mouth with water because these thing can sit in between teeth and when they sit there, they begin to eat away at the enamel. once decay is deep enough in the enamel, then he needs a filling.
I am a dental assistant and let me tell you, brushing thoroughly two times a day is never enough.
hope that helps... :)

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I would ask for a second opinion...That's what I did for my then 3 year old when I was told she had one cavity.

Many small cavities can be just covered with sealants to protect the tooth from further decaying. This is a more conservative approach that not many dentist offer. It is very affordable, and quick and comfortable procedure. It is also very good to prevent cavities in the back teeth, specially for teeth with deep crevices, like my child has.

Many dentists don't offer sealants, and prefer to perform more invasive procedures than are unnecessary to maximize profits. I not saying that's your case, maybe your child needs fillings. Mine child did not have a cavity yet, but my new pediatric dentist put some sealants to prevent the back teeth with deep crevices.

My little guy was given multiple appointments. If he is good and sits still (highly unlikely) they will fill both if not we have two appointments already scheduled just incase if we didn't who knows how long it would take before we could get that second filling done. I would ask them to do both if he can handle it.

My almost 6 year old son just had two cavities (one on each side bottom) filled. He was given nitrous and from that point until he was done only took about 30-40 minutes. He didn't have any problems, no pain or anything. It was not a bad experience for him. I would not have wanted to have them done in seperate appointments. When I spoke to my dentist prior to the appointment he said that if they cavity was more severe then they would have wanted to give him nitrous and a shot before filling them, but luckily that was not the case with my ds as he only needed the nitrous. Fortunately there are not long waits at my dentist office as I know how tough that can be on top of everything else.

The single appointments for the fillings might be good even if they don't have to give them laughing gas. All the sounds could be nerve racking for a young child to have to deal with. But I don't understand the cleaning appointment unless it was made 6 months out from this last exam because this last visit should have been a routine exam/cleaning right? If you don't feel comfortable with your son getting gas for the fillings, then say so when you go to the appointment. If they are surface cavities, there isn't even a need for Novocaine let alone gas. Just my 2 cents

Good luck
S.

I am a dental hygienist. For the most part, I agree with what many of the others have said. Very likely, all the time you spent waiting was because it is a low-cost office. That's inconvenient and unpleasant but, unfortunately, often seems to go with the territory. As for the number of visits, that really doesn't sound unreasonable. It depends a lot on where the cavities are located and how severe they are. Occasionally, very shallow cavities can be filled quickly and don't even require anesthesia. In such a case, it would make sense to fill them both in the same appointment. That's usually the exception to the rule, though. If the cavities are a little larger, the child will definitely need to be numb in the area before filling the teeth. If the teeth are right next to eachother, again, it might make sense to fill them both at the same time, so the child won't have to get numb in the same place twice. However, if the teeth are in different areas of the mouth, it is probably better for the child to have separate appointments. I work in a really good office and we usually schedule an hour per filling. (If the fillings are small or very simple we may plan a little less time.) Most five-year-olds reach their limit for sitting still by the time an hour is over. So a two-hour appointment would be pretty stressful (even with nitrous). Also, we don't want to get too much of the mouth numb at the same time (especially if it's on the lower teeth) because that greatly increases the chance of the child causing injury to himself by biting his teeth or tongue. And it's a lot more uncomfortable for the child after the appointment. In our office, we see a lot of children and don't use nitrous on the kids. We take the time to talk to the children and walk them through what's going on. Almost all of our kids do great--they don't fear the dentist and are very cooperative. Usually, when we do get anxious children, they have very anxious parents who have conveyed negative messages about dentists to their children. Although our practice is not a specifically pediatric practice, it is rare that we have to refer a child to a pedodontist because he is not doing well with us. Most young children are far less stressed about dental appointments than their parents are!

It really does depend on the location of the cavities and the severity.
Last year my DD (then 4.5) had to have 3 filled (2 on one side, 1 on another). I opted to not go w/ the nitrous and just do novacaine. It was split into 2 appts..
What a trooper my little girl was. I cried. She didn't.

Ours is a pediatric dentist, and we did not have to wait at any of her appts..

There are alternatives to how fillings are done, but they are not common practice yet. So I highly doubt there are any options at your dentist office.

You might seek out a 2nd opinion. I would have if I had to do it all over again.
I chose to have the white composite fillings put in her teeth because I wanted to avoid the mercury fillings in her head. But then I did some investigation and found out the composite fillings contain BPA.

Neither poison do I want in my child. :(

Whatever you do, prep your boy before you go. Explain that it doesn't feel great but it is not as bad as it seems. It seems really scary, but mommy will be there. Oh and if they won't let you be back there w/ him during the procedure RUN and never look back!

Naturopath (I am spelling that wrong!) dentists do exist. You might consult w/ one on ways to heal your sons teeth-it can be done, so I've read.

Best wishes to you and your boy.

Are the cavities both on the same side or opposite sides of the mouth? My son has had a lot of dental work done (genetic problems with his teeth) and they will split dental work into more then one apt depending on if they're on the same side, how much work the cavity will take to repair etc. It is a lot of running back and forth but trying to get it all done at once can be too much on a child as well and it can run into the issue of having to give too much sedative at one time. We prefer to see a pediactric dentist as they are better equipted to take care of younger children and know their temperments better. Sometimes our ped would plan on 2 apts but if he was doing well and the work wasn't taking too much they'd do it in the one after all. But it always depended on the day as to whether my son was good or not.

Our pediatric dentist puts the kids to sleep at the hospital out patient clinic and does all the work at once. They wake up and want to go to someplace to eat, play and have fun. They don't remember any work being done, it is over very quickly, and it is nothing but fun for them. I would never put my child through all that drilling, the shots, the feeling of the grinding, drilling, the smell of the decay, yuk...I had horrible experiences as a child with several different dentists and as an adult I go to sleep and have my teeth pulled instead of getting them fixed.

It's really common for appointments to be split. Sometimes it works out that multiple fillings can be done on the same day, and if so the extra appt gets nixed, but more often than not with little kids they *aren't* able to do more than 1 tooth each time unless they're prepared for the kids to be *miserable*.

Also, (don't know if this is what's true in your office) low cost dentistry is often staffed by dental students overseen by their full DDS professors. Wait times can get VERY long (as can procedures) simply because it's 'student work'. The students go slower, and then also need to have their work checked (and sometimes redone) by their professor.

I use to work for a pedo dentist-is it a pedo dentist? Never heard of the nitrous time limit, but know it depends where the teeth are located we would not numb certain areas at the same time and would split the appt. As for the cleaning we would usually do it at the last appt-unless they are having a hygienist do it-we would also set up seperate appts for that too.If u can give me some more info maybe I can help u more-also a second opinion never hurts. I did it for mine and it ended up there was not a cavity there :) L.

My son had five fillings when he was almost three. We did have two appointments scheduled, but he did so well that the dentist was able to fill them all at one sitting. What a relief! I forgot to add that he was given an oral sedation.

Would you like to know what they do when you have good insurance. In Oregon they take the child into the hospital medicate him to the nth degree and while he is out cold on anaesthesia they fill five teeth.
And yes there were complications emotional and physical.
You have a good deal.