Thank You Jesus...and Dr LeBlanc

For those of you who don't know the beginning of the story I will start with... I have been taking Jonathan to the dentist with me since before he had teeth and trying to get him to open and get his teeth cleaned since at least 3 years old. as soon as we walked in the dentist office he would clench his face shut and cry. NOTE: when a kid does this at a regular family dentist they back off and do not even attempt to talk them through any of it. It seems like no big deal every kid does it and some day they will cooperate. so every six months at my dentist appts. I would take Jonathan and try again...until this last appt he clammed up AGAIN and i just made another appt for the next week and was planning to go back every week until he gave in. With much bribery and barganing he gave in one week later. ALTHOUGH they did not take any xrays he said he had 4 cavities that needed attention and to take him to a pediadentist. So a week later I took him to Dr Anderson he was just the 1st name on the list insurance covered.

At his appt with Dr Anderson the dental assistant was really good with him and got xrays needed. the dentist came in and made his "recomendations" Jonathan had 12 cavities 5 of them needed a pulpotomy (root canal for kids) those 5 would have crowns the rest were just your regular everyday run of the mill cavities. basically in a nutshell he said we had 2 (only 2) options!

Option 1: Go to the hospital for outpatient surgery with anesthesia. He had to be sedated for 2 hours. His services rendured would cost is around $1300.00 (after insurance paid the other $1500.00)the hospital and anestesia were NOT covered by our insurance so that cost would have been completely out of pocket. (think the ball park of $4000. to $7000.00 or more this was an estimate) yep not a typo! or we could go to the other surgery center that is for people who dont have insurance and that facility was $2000.00. cheaper yes, but out by research hospital - uh no thanks! and after waiting 2 weeks to find out what exactly insurance would pay them they would then expect payment one week BEFORE surgery is scheduled. Good thing i have that money tree out back let me go pick $9,000.00 for you right now.

Option2: refer us to an oral surgeon to have 8, YES 8, of his teeth REMOVED! none of these teeth that he thought should be removed would come back until he was 13 ish. so he would have to have more work done with spacers and what not to make sure all his teeth that were left were not shifting all over the place. (not to mention we would have to put him back on babyfood) he only has 20 teeth to begin with.

Now these were his ONLY 2 options. He had various reasons for not wanting to do it any other way. he is 5, nitrous won't work, he could fight it, the top molars that needed the pulpotomy were so bad he will be ruined for life, the pain, he won't sit still....blah blah blah...then came the guilt trip, kids should not have milk after age 1. no juice, no candy, no sugar, no ice cream, or cake EVER! So what ARE they supposed to have? only water and bread? After I left there I cried the whole way home because I thought for sure this was all my fault, banned all fruit juice for the rest of their lives (that lasted about 3 hours) they don't even drink apple juice straight, i still mix even Jonathans with 1/2 water at least, sometimes more. kicking myself for a day and a half for not taking him to a pediadentist when he was 3. Dr Anderson also made it seem like this was a huge emergency (needed to be taken care of quickly, yes, not rush into surgery)

So Monday I had this brilliant idea... i wonder if i can find a pediadentist who does Sedation dentistry in their office? Hmmmm...called around ALL DAY Monday, talked to some friends (thanks Becky) , got a couple referals and called Jenkins and LeBlanc out in Overland Park. Got us right in for Wednesday (today) even went ahead and scheduled the sedation dentistry for that saturday In case today went so well we could get it in motion and get these fillings done.

I went Tuesday and picked up the xrays form the other dentist. (not so nice about that either, are you suprised yet?) This morning despite the blizzard I got up at 6:30 AM. got us out of the house by 7:45 so we could be at 143rd and Metcalf by 9. (yeah that was exciting! I only slid into 1 curb) We met Dr Leblanc, he took COMPLIMENTARY xrays because the copy of the other was a little too dark to see, came back and said he pretty much agrees with how many problems there are but he would make a couple changes 1 less cap and less almalgum (silver) instead he would use the tooth colored enamel. Went to the desk and came back 30 minutes later to show me how much out of pocket it would cost after clearing the work with insurance on the phone. The total for all the work he could start today and finish on saturday was...are you ready...$185.00. yeah that is right 185. Not only that but, with Jonathan's Asthma he said it would not be a good idea to start off so aggressive with not knowing how he would respond to sedation, because it reduces the oxygen in his system it would not be safe unless we knew how he would respond to it. His suggestion was to try Nitrous and see how much he could get done.Even if it was 2 fillings a day for a week. if that did not work we would try the next step and knock him out a little bit. if that didnt work we would do the sedation. We hashed it over together and decided, Lets give the nitrous a try if he won't cooperate we will go to plan B.

The kids played video games until a room was ready. They gave him a mask with different kinds of "candy" to smell. He laid there and watched a movie on the ceiling secretly breathing the candy smelled nitrous, numbed up the work zone and got to work. 45 minutes later, he said ok your done for today cleaned him off. We are at 3/4 of the work DONE! Saturday we go back at 8 to finish the last crown and 2 more fillings. Plan A worked!

I am so glad I had the thought that the first dentist was not our only option, Once again proving just because he is a doctor, does not mean HE knows what is best for MY child!!!!! All you mom's out there trust your instincts. If you want to make don't just take ONE persons "recomendations" $8000.00 or $185.oo what would you choose?