Dental Surgery

My son Benjamin had his third dental surgery this morning. He lets the dentist look in his mouth, but that is about it. His first surgery was less than a year after we moved here when he was about 6 years old. He had to get four fillings and four crowns at a full retail price tag of about $10k. The second one, he only had a cleaning and sealants applied. This time he got a cleaning and a filling fixed, so not too bad. We have private insurance on him and medicaid. We don't use medicaid for the other kids, because they are a lot less complicated and expensive.

Ben's first surgery was an unknown. We were very concerned that the "mask" would totally freak him out, so they gave him an anesthetic in a shot instead. While he was in the operating room, the anesthesiologist found that Ben's airways are much smaller than he first thought and require infant-sized tubing rather than child-sized. So Ben's airways were more aggravated than normal. The procedure went well, but recovery did not. I was there alone, seven months pregnant with J.B., because my husband had thrown his back out the day before. Benj wouldn't stay awake. He would wake up and throw up bile and blood and fall back asleep. Our procedure had been at 8:00 a.m. and by early afternoon, we were still there. Finally, around two or three, I was told that we could go home if someone could sit in the back with Benjamin and monitor him so that he wouldn't choke or anything. My husband came, walking carefully and crookedly and we took our boy home. He slept for most of two days and for two days after that, barely slept at all. Obviously the anesthetic was much more effective than anticiipated. We never know how chemicals will affect him. he is wired differently than the rest of us.

We learned from our first experience and used the mask with the second surgery. We even had blood work done while he was unconscious. We tested him for allergies to foods so that we could know if we should try a gluten-free diet. His results came back negative, thankfully. That gluten-free stuff is not my first choice by any means. That surgery was pretty uneventful just like today's. Hallelujah.


We did bloodwork this time too to check for any signs of diabetes because he is so overweight and urinates very frequently. We want to catch things as early as possible and prevent if we can.

In a few years when we do this again, they want to use the shot again because he is getting so big. That will be fun.