1CalFan;842370849 said:
Not a dentist but you should google children's teeth & root canals. I would think that root canals are for adult teeth. Also, once you get your insurance have the dentist repair the cavities and then have the dentist place sealants on your child's teeth. My two children both had sealants on their baby teeth and never had a cavity during their youth. Lastly watch your child brush their teeth !
This may have been mentioned already, but a 3 1/2 year old CANNOT properly brush his or her teeth. Parents should be flossing and brushing childrens' teeth until about age 10. Another issue not mentioned thus far is the scourge of fruit juices and juice boxes. One of the WORST things you can do for your child's teeth is let them walk around all day with a bottle of juice to sip on or a juice box. Constant exposure to sugars is what accelerates decay. My friend and dentist says that your mouth can effectively flush sugars from your teeth for about five minutes. Thereafter, your teeth are marinating in tooth decay soup. So don't keep sugary drinks around for them to drink all day long. Let 'em enjoy these things with meals, but they shouldn't be sucking on them throughout the day. Substitute water for that.
Although your child will lose the baby teeth, severe decay and/or abscess can and will affect the adult teeth above and below the baby teeth.
Now a second and third opinion are in order for you.
My two children both needed "baby root canals." In spite of twice-daily flossing and brushing, our daughter had a deep cavity that required a root canal. Same thing with my son last year. Well, luckily I have a good and trusted dentist friend and Cal alum who has been a REAL GOD SEND as far as dental advice goes. In other words, he's both saved me thousands of dollars and offered straightforward, reasonable advice. I think the dental profession, like many today in California, suffers from the "do everything possible to avoid future litigation" disease. That is, whenever there's a doubt about pediatric dental care, they really err on the conservative side. This approach also happens to fatten their wallets. So when my son had a baby tooth erupt with an abscess in his gum, his regular dentist wanted to send him to the oral surgeon for tooth extraction, then the orthodontist to fit a spacer. "Better deal with this right away!" was their advice.
Well, I got on the phone to my friend and his initial advice was to allow the abscess to drain, monitor his fever and let him know if it didn't resolve in a week or so. The infection subsided and we decided to have him address the problem and perform a baby root canal (forgo extraction, that is). Then about a year later, the tooth erupted again. Since we had already performed the root canal, tooth extraction was the next step. My friend did it in his office in about half an hour. No oral surgeon needed. No orthodontic spacer needed. Result? Healthy, happy son and teeth. Savings? About $3-4k. I like!
So I realize you may not have the benefit of a trusted friend to rely on, so do some research on your own. Yelp is a good start, although its recommendations are not totally objective. You may want to pay for a subscription to Angie's List to find a well-liked dentist in your area. And if the dentist you do find suddenly recommends thousand dollar oral surgeons, you may want to continue searching until you find someone who can offer more affordable and reasonable dental care.
I'll echo what others said that waiting until age 3 1/2 sounds a bit late for her initial dental visit. See the dentist once the first teeth are in, then annually. Nope, I don't see the dentist every six months. That's what 2X a day flossing and brushing is for! And YOU need to be flossing and brushing her teeth! (If you can't do the floss, well then start on yourself for a few weeks until you get the motor dexterity, then do it on her. You'll find that once you're proficient flossing someone else's teeth, doing your own is a breeze! And then there are those flossers you can use, which I hate, but my wife likes 'em. I don't think they do a very good job.)
Good luck. I hope you find a professional, trustworthy and reasonably-priced dentist!
