Death of Chyldrun During Dental Procedures: Parental neglect a contributing factor? ?

This is a news article about a toddler who died during a dental procedure. There are varying stories about this, including one where someone is already offering an opinion that the procedure was unnecessary. She was getting two teeth removed and two crowns. Of course just as in Jahi McMath's situation, there are news outlets reporting this was a "routine" dental procedure. I'm sorry there is nothing routine about a toddler having baby teeth that are so decayed that she needs general anesthesia to remove them and have crowns put on.

This reminds me of this story in where a kid died while having a similar procedure. Although the death was ruled as natural, the mother ended up filing a $5M wrongful death suit, which was settled for $100,000.

While all these stories are sad, I'm also wondering HTH a kid that young gets rotten teeth? Are the parunts letting their toadler run around with a sugary bottle and eat sweet shit all day? Are they brushing their teeth? Kids can't go to the grocery store themselves and pay for their own food and make their own choices---- somewhere a parent is complicit in this.

Much like Jahi McMath needed super complex surgery due to being obese, this is a sad outcome of lax parenting.

A kid's teeth have to be pretty fucking rotten to have two that are damaged enough to require caps and two that are completely FUBAR. I'm willing to give the handlers the benefit of the doubt for now. It's entirely possible the kid just came up snake eyes in terms of dental health - some people are religious about taking care of their teeth and they still need tens of thousands of dollars worth of work done.

But if I had to put my money on a culprit, I'd say that it's far more likely the parent(s) gave the kid nothing but soda to drink and didn't make the kid brush its teeth or didn't brush them for her. Probably figured the girl would lose those baby teeth anyway, so who cares if they rot right out of her skull? Never mind the fact that dental problems due to neglect can easily carry over into the permanent teeth.

The article mentions the kid had a reaction to the anesthesia and that's what caused her heart to stop. It could have been negligence on the staff's part, like too much anesthesia was used because they probably don't get a lot of patients that young coming in for tooth pulls. Or it could have just been something going haywire in the kid's body - just one of those freak things that happens sometimes.

In any case, I bet you anything the kid wouldn't have even needed dental surgery had her parents taken better care of her teeth, be it controlling her diet better or taking her to a dentist sooner so she could have gotten her teeth fixed before they got bad enough to warrant caps and removal. But since nothing is ever the parents' fault, it'll be the hospital that eats it and has to pay Mommy and/or Daddy for their negligence in the form of a big fat settlement because they've Suffered Enough^TM.

My question is, why did she need anesthesia anyway? I had two teeth pulled from my maxilla {my wisdom teeth were coming in, and I was in pain so the dentist said to remove one from each side so my wisdom teeth, or rather, the gums around them, would stop hurting}. I wasn't put under, I was just given local anesthetic. It hurt when it happened, but after some therapeutic sobs and a hug from my mom when the procedure was over I was fine.

And let me just repeat, lest a lurking moo judge my mom, I was fine. I was more irritated AFTER the procedure because I had a dull ache in my jaw and I couldn't eat. Now, I had heart surgery when I was a baby, so it's possible that is why my dentist decided against putting me under. Regardless, in my opinion, the pain wasn't bad enough to warrant being sedated.

Lock him up or put him down.
Stolen from Shiny.

Anesthesia always comes with risk, which is one of the reasons you try to minimize the surgical procedures you undergo. I assume with a small child it is easier to knock them out than to get them to keep still for the duration of the work, especially if they are poorly disciplined which I sort of assume is the case because teeth this bad go hand in hand with shitty parenting, except in rare cases where there is some type of congenital defect causing excessively soft teeth. But if that were the case, concerned parents would no doubt have gotten treatment before things got to this state. I think we can be pretty sure this was a kid that was given bottles filled with sugar water (aka "juice") to suck on even before it got teeth.

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bell_flower
While all these stories are sad, I'm also wondering HTH a kid that young gets rotten teeth? Are the parunts letting their toadler run around with a sugary bottle and eat sweet shit all day? Are they brushing their teeth? Kids can't go to the grocery store themselves and pay for their own food and make their own choices---- somewhere a parent is complicit in this.

In a word, yes. Parents shove juice boxes on their kids all day, ensuring that their teeth will rot and that the kids will be obese.

I didn't even know they capped baby teeth. It's like what's the point? It seems like a waste of money for a crown when the baby teeth will eventually fall out.

I did have some baby teeth pulled, I remember getting laughing gas for the first one (I was only about this kid's age) and local anesthetic for the others. I didn't know they put kids under for that. I remember my brother being put under when he had his wisdom teeth out but he was a teenager. I only had mine pulled out a couple years ago, I was such a chicken and put it off for so many years but they've come a long way since I was a kid. I didn't feel anything!

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mazey
I didn't even know they capped baby teeth. It's like what's the point? It seems like a waste of money for a crown when the baby teeth will eventually fall out.

Poor dental hygiene can lead to lifelong health problems. Of course prevention is the far better than treatment.

I've also never personally heard of anybody being put under (general) anesthesia for tooth caps and pulls because I think the use of anesthesia is exclusive to surgery, like wisdom tooth removal. For non-surgical dental work, I can't imagine anything other than gas or novocaine (if anything) being used unless the person has very severe anxiety or a goddamn good and goddamn legitimate reason for needing full-blown anesthesia, which I'm sure would have to be approved by someone with more power than the dentist since it's probably not supposed to be used outside of surgery.

So how did the proud parents get the dentist/medical board/whoever to allow use of general anesthesia for this kind of procedure? I'm sure they diagnosed their little miracle with ADHD, never once realizing that all the fucking sugar they (most likely) fed her that caused her teeth to rot in the first place might be what was making her hyper enough to need to be completely knocked out.

Or maybe it was the dentist who asked for it. He or she probably had a hell of a time examining this flailing brat's mouth during the initial diagnostic visit, not only because it was an energetic, sugar-loaded toadler, but also because her entire mouth probably ached from constant sugar consumption. That dentist probably didn't want to try to deal with trying to cap and pull said brat's teeth with her awake, so they may have been the one to recommend the anesthesia.

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bell_flower


While all these stories are sad, I'm also wondering HTH a kid that young gets rotten teeth? Are the parunts letting their toadler run around with a sugary bottle and eat sweet shit all day? Are they brushing their teeth? Kids can't go to the grocery store themselves and pay for their own food and make their own choices---- somewhere a parent is complicit in this.

Much like Jahi McMath needed super complex surgery due to being obese, this is a sad outcome of lax parenting.

Yep.

I have seen the type of shit breeders buy for their kids to eat at Publix every time I am there: sugary cereal, sugary juice boxes, etc etc etc my guess is, the main reason for them handing Fuckston and Shitleigh these sugary juice boxes is to keep their mouths and hands busy so that Moomy is left the fuck alone for awhile.

General anesthetic is only used in brat dentistry, when everything else has failed. Basically the brat is so unruly and unmanageable, that they have to be sedated into a virtual coma, in order for the dentist to do their jobs.
The thing is that general anesthetic is so dangerous, that they would need further specialist medical clinicians as well, as there's huge risks.

There's something very wrong is there is a need to do extractions and extensive reconstruction under anesthetics - on non-permanent teeth.

I don't know that Jahi was having dental work...I thought she was getting her tonsils out, and tissue from the back of her throat removed (which accumulates as a result of obesity and causes sleep apnea).

Which, if you think about it, is STILL neglect...

Yeah, I'm 33 and have never had a crown/cap/whatever that girl was having done. Dental insurance is a huge issue in this country, so I get that people can't always get to the dentist for cleanings and such as often as they should.

HOWEVER, you can still avoid massive dental problems by brushing/flossing daily & not eating tons of sugar/carbs. I know because I've gone most of my life with sub-par dental care and still haven't had any root canals, crowns, falsies or other major procedures due to rotting teeth. I've had one extraction of a wisdom tooth that had come in crooked & rotted, and they did NOT give me general anesthesia for that. Odd that they would need to knock a person all the way out to extract a tooth? It takes literally two seconds: give numbing shot, pull tooth out in one yank. It's less invasive/painful than a filling.

I'd say the blame goes 50/50 on the parents & dentists/anesthesiologists. The parents for letting it get that bad & the dentists for killing the kid with general anesthesia they shouldn't have had. I once had a dental office give me a Halcion tablet for anxiety in addition to nitrous! Didn't die. But IV anesthesia is dangerous and should NOT be used unless it's a major procedure. There are other sedatives even for unruly kids. Sounds like it was done for the convenience of the dentist honestly.