[This post is co-written by Papa Ed]

An incident made us REAL MAD and FURIOUS last Saturday.  

So what exactly has happened…….?

We would never imagine that a trip to the dentist to remove a loose baby tooth, would end up with the dentist extracting the wrong tooth but also causing GREAT FEAR in our young one to ever step into any dental clinic again. To make matter worse, the dentist did not address our direct concerns nor apologise when we confronted him on the wrong extraction!

The story goes like this…..

Last Friday night, we booked an appointment with a neighbourhood dentist to remove Darren’s loose tooth.  Our boy, who had a prior pleasant experience at another dental clinic, was quite receptive to have his tooth extracted (this being his second dental appointment). Hmmm….so we thought our brave Darren has a very strong threshold for pain and that should be just a simple procedure for him. So that was what we thought…….*sigh*.

The first words that the dentist said to us, when he met Darren, was that we could consider bringing Darren to the Singapore General Hospital, to have his tooth extraction, with the aid of gas. 

[Our first thought was why this sudden recommendation, especially when our boy was not displaying any difficulty in cooperating and neither has the doctor tried to even strike any conversation with our young boy. Why this recommendation for such a simple procedure? If he has concerns that his patient is a child, then he should not have accepted our appointment in the first place.]

How should a child react at a dental clinic? 

I guess no child will feel absolutely comfortable when they are at a dental clinic (especially a clinic that he has not visited before and where the doctor makes no effort to even say a friendly word to the child).  So, Darren had his mouth closed tight.  Instead of talking to Darren nicely to open the mouth, the dentist forced open Darren’s mouth and checked only the two loose teeth that we mentioned without checking the rest of the teeth.  He very quickly advised the extraction of only one of the teeth (the central incisor - lower teeth) since it was very loose. We agreed since that was the purpose of our visit anyway.

The bad experience began!!

Then what happened next was what seemed to us - fast, rough and unexpected!  Without even uttering a word to the young boy to prepare or soothe him, he sprayed some liquid anesthesia onto one of the lower tooth

[After many trips to other dentists, I understand that this is the type of pain reliever that dentists will spray onto patient's gum for extraction of loose teeth. For deeply rooted teeth, dentist wil usually give a jab instead (apparently, with stronger effect to numb pain)].

What happened next was in split second. Even before the “liquid anesthesia set in”, he was already using his equipment with force to extract out the supposedly lower and very loose tooth for Darren.  No. There was no prior warning. There was no effort at all to make sure that the kid is doing well before all the actions took place. It seemed to us that the dentist was in a hurry to extract the tooth before anything could have happened for the boy to resist.  The fact is Darren was not even struggling except exhibiting a sense of nervousness! Which child won’t anyway? 

[We were wondering why the force when the tooth was supposed to be very loose anyway?]

A painful scene

The scene that followed was a painful one. For the first time, we saw our poor Darren in deep pain, clenching his fist, with tears rolled down his cheeks and yet not even moving an inch of his body.

[I guess this pain must be so unbearable for him to clench his fist so tightly and cry.  Even for his first and recent dental appointment with another dentist, he has never behaved so fearful.]

So, we witnessed the seemingly rough treatment of my young but cooperative boy, the hurriedness, and also the lack of social skill to even interact with a young kid. Then, followed by the amount of  “compelling force” that he next applied to Darren to stop the bleeding. Till the end, there was no communication between the dentist and Darren and we left the clinic, feeling upset over the “rough and hasty handling”.  We were also surprised that the extracted tooth was a long (almost 2 cm) with deep root.

Darren’s bleeding did not stop only after a few hours (as compared to the usual 20 - 30 minutes that we are usually told). In fact, he had to bite on a new gauze till he slept because the bleeding somehow did not dry up. Frankly, I regretted my choice of going to that dentist at that moment. All this while, after several dental appointments for Brendan, I have never expected that a dentist could be so harsh to a young kid. At least, the dentists that we encountered were patient in handling and soothing young kids and also careful in their extraction. Some even advise our boy on oral hygiene during the appointment. But we thought we have one lesson learnt and let’s not visit that dentist again.

What made us real furious?

What made our blood boil was the next day when Darren could finally open his mouth to tell us that his loose tooth is still in his mouth. To our horror, we discovered that all the pain he encountered the night before was to extract a healthy and immobile tooth, that was not supposed to be extracted in the first place!  So, he was so painful and in tears because he could still feel the pain during the extraction (obviously the anesthesia had not taken effects then) and he knew that the dentist was extracting the wrong tooth but he was too weak to protest! 

The pain experienced on the extraction of a  deeply rooted tooth, we could imagine, was too strong (without receiving the correct jab to numb his pain for an intact tooth).  The doctor had in his RUSH, inaccurately removed a lateral incisor instead of the central incisor. This lateral incisor could take quite a long time later to be replaced with an adult tooth. That is beside the point…….. 

[So, again, what is his reason for rushing when we were granted a long half-hour appointment and what is his reason for not checking properly?]

The tooth on the left of the gap should be the tooth to be extracted!

The damages done

All this while, I have been trying to encourage both my boys so that they would not be fearful of visiting a dental clinic and building the confidence in them that dentists are there to help them maintain a healthy oral hygiene. 

What my boy suffered was  not only the Pain (that even adults cannot stand without proper and prior jab), but also a WRONG EXTRACTION (of which the adult tooth would replace only after some months or years), a TRAUMA, and also a LONG-TERM FEAR instilled in him to ever dare to visit a dentist again. The experience was irreversible. Not to mention the extra experience and waste of time as we brought him to a second dentist after that to seek his advice on the damage caused on the gum and also to make things right for Darren (since he complained of pain in the gum and headache). To share frankly, I was in tears secretly to know that my boy has suffered this unduly and it really pained our hearts.

The aftermath

We immediately rang up the dentist who claimed that he might have done the extraction too hastily because he feared that the kid might resist. But we told him that we did not see any gesture by him to even talk to the boy and moreover our boy was not even struggling.  If he has no confidence to handle a young kid, then he could have just told us or explain to us that we could just let the tooth drop off on its own since it is already very loose. It is his negligence to extract a wrong tooth without any precision. With a dentist’s many years of experience, we would assume that he should know that he has to be tender with kids and also that he has extracted a wrong tooth (judging from the strength he has to use, the length and condition of the tooth)? What made us disappointed as we spoke to him was he did not admit his mistake but tried to stray the topic to other issues like he has prescribed pain killers etc.).  

So, we made it very clear to him is that he has done a wrong extraction and the traumatic experience that will be left with the young kid for a while. We brought him there for his help but not to inflict unnecessary pain. As we fail to get a sincere apology from the dentist, we have decided to pursue the matter in an official manner.  We felt that such an irresponsible doctor has to be reported and we don’t wish to see other patients suffer similar treatments.

The fear in Darren now

As expected, Darren has shown GREAT FEAR, for the first time, when we brought him to the another dentist for consultation after the damage was done. So, the harm and impact are apparent. We have decided to let his loose teeth drop out by themselves….it is safer that way, we guess now. He is not going to be ready for a long while.

For now, we try to avoid the topic of dental appointments after trying our very best to convince Darren that not all dentists are so careless or insensitive. We don’t know how the Authority will take up the case with the dentist but we hope that Darren will walk out of his phobia soon.

Finally, we would like to share with parents to make the right choice when bringing your kids for dental appointments. Get special reference to visit dentists who have the patience and skill to handle kids. I am aware of some dentists who do not accept appointments with kids and I am also aware of dentists who have special social skill to soothe a kid (Brendan has seen one or two of such dentists before). I thought it is a GIVEN for dentist to be precised in their extraction and treatment?

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