My 3 yo recently had to get stitches and then had to get a cavity filled today, and both times were pure hell. I understand he's three and going to be scared, but the sedative they gave him both times didn't seem to have any effect. So, even though the area where they were working may have been numb, he was still freaking out.
Does anyone else have a pre-schooler who they can't 'knock out' at the doctor/dentist with regular methods, and have you found something that works instead? I'm thinking about taking him to a specialist and finding out methods we can have doctors use. I would hate to have to actually give him an anesthetic for things like fillings or stitches, but if that's what it takes, for his sake, I would strongly consider it.
Re: 3 yo reaction to sedatives at doctor/dentist
My daughter had fits at the dentist just for cleaning so my dentist completely knocked her out when it came to doing 3 fillings. Some people hate doing that to their child but it was so much emotionally easier on her....and easier for the dentist!
It's called "nursing bottle carries" when really young children have extensive decay due to nursing and/or using a bottle without brushing their teeth. I work for a pediatric dentist and see this daily. Parents nurse or give a bottle of milk/formula/breast milk to a child to fall to sleep with and the natural sugars in any of those things sit on the teeth all night and slowly (or sometimes quickly) decay. I have had to extract and cap teeth on 2 year olds because of this. The parents always take it as a "don't nurse/bottle feed past one year", but really it's "never let your child nurse/bottle feed to sleep without brushing."
Agree!