I first saw this video clip on CNN, but found a written version to share. http://www.khou.com/news/health/187290431.html
In my opinion, this just seems like absurd dental care. I wanted to get the board's perspective, because this news article is not the first time I've seen this. Last year I saw three children, from two separate families, with this kind of dental work: front teeth removed and remaining teeth all capped in metal. It really surprised me, because you'd never see an adult settling for this kind of work. I mean, I know they're just baby teeth, but it's still going to be like that for a long time! And the poor girl must have been horrified.
It also surprised me that this child is only 4. Where I live, dentists don't even book appointments until children are four years old, unless there is a dental emergency. So for that kind of decay to occur, where every single tooth needed to be completely capped or removed, I have to wonder why routine care is delayed so long. I've personally seen this on a 2-year-old, and on preschoolers that I estimated to be 3 and 4. It really surprised me to see it then too.
Didn't the mother say they came in to have four cavities filled? How does that amount to more than four teeth getting worked on?? And she made no mention of the missing top ones. Perhaps they were already missing. I lost a tooth in a bicycle accident when I was young, but they fitted me with a space retainer right away that looked exactly like a tooth until my permanent one came in there.
In my opinion, this just seems like absurd dental care. I wanted to get the board's perspective, because this news article is not the first time I've seen this. Last year I saw three children, from two separate families, with this kind of dental work: front teeth removed and remaining teeth all capped in metal. It really surprised me, because you'd never see an adult settling for this kind of work. I mean, I know they're just baby teeth, but it's still going to be like that for a long time! And the poor girl must have been horrified.
It also surprised me that this child is only 4. Where I live, dentists don't even book appointments until children are four years old, unless there is a dental emergency. So for that kind of decay to occur, where every single tooth needed to be completely capped or removed, I have to wonder why routine care is delayed so long. I've personally seen this on a 2-year-old, and on preschoolers that I estimated to be 3 and 4. It really surprised me to see it then too.
Didn't the mother say they came in to have four cavities filled? How does that amount to more than four teeth getting worked on?? And she made no mention of the missing top ones. Perhaps they were already missing. I lost a tooth in a bicycle accident when I was young, but they fitted me with a space retainer right away that looked exactly like a tooth until my permanent one came in there.