Update on Owen's Big Day Yesterday (long)

First, thanks to everyone for your support.  I am so grateful for this board and all the advice and support I've received.

So, Owen came through like a champ (he went more than 12 hours w/o food, water before he was sedated)!  He got crowns on all his molars, and composites (the strongest available) on his front teeth. There was not enough tooth structure to crown the front teeth, which the dentist had suspected may be the case. Hopefully, Owen will not wear these away (the composites - the crowns are stainless so that shouldn't be a problem).  The dentist will probably need to crown the rest of his teeth as they come in, so this will be a long process.  Our insurance cmpany's dental review board denied our request for coverage based on medical necessity, so I am waiting for the letter of denial to take further appeals (until I get the insurance co to have the claim reviewed by an actual dentist/dr).  Owen has dentinogenesis imperfecta type 2, and w/o this work his teeth would all eventually fall out, or get infected, cause his permanent teeth to shift, etc., so there is no way I will accept this isn't "medically necessary."   

He also had a cholesteoma (very small, thankfully) removed from his right ear, which probably formed as a result of the myringotomy he had in April 2010 (the tube has since fell out).  This went well.

The most stunning news involved his hearing test (ABR):  His right ear showed moderate to moderately severe conductive loss; the bone conduction revealed near normal hearing, so despite what we'd been told by a surgeon with a highly-regarded national reputation (who I didn't respect at all, which is why we went someplace else), Owen does not have a sensorineural loss in his right ear.  His left ear has a profound loss - there was no response at all - but we will not be able to tell if this loss is conductive, sensorineural or mixed (there is a significant middle ear structural anomaly so probably a conductive component) until Owen is older and is able to tell us what he's hearing, in which ear.  The audiologist explained she could not mask the right ear to test the left (masked bone conduction) b/c the left ear loss is so great (the sound level would penetrate the "mask.").

Anyway, this testing confimed what has emerged in the sound booth and what I see at home: that Owen is really responding well to sound. So, he's not a candidate for cochlear implants, but a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) may be a good option down the line (he'd have to be at least 4 years old).  In the meantime, we will continue to aid both ears, and look for any changes.