Drama Week

We've had a bit of drama go through this household in the past week. It has been stressful, hectic and plain confusing at times. In a nutshell, the fillings that Aaron got in February did not get rid of all the decay and has this week culminated in visits to three separate dentists and a final verdict that he will need to have one tooth extracted and a pulpotomy (baby root canal) done on another two. Let me repeat that : One tooth pulled out and two root canals !!! Oh, and there was a missed cavity that now needs to be filled. I got all this when I took him to a paediatric dentist (aka, super expensive dentist) for another opinion. The original place told us to give him panadol and wait and see. We found out this week that Aaron actually has an abscessed tooth with inflamed gums, pus and the lot. Panadol was not going to cut it!

Can you imagine my devastation when told that my six year old has to lose a tooth? It may sound like no big deal and compared with all the seriously ill children in the world, this is nothing. However, to me, it was a blow. Like this Batman styled one :

I felt devastated because that tooth was under my care. I am supposed to care for every part of Aaron - look after him, nurture him, make sure he stays healthy and definitely make sure that he does not lose a tooth to decay (or have two others half rotted away). I can always blame the sugary pain numbing solutions that he needed for his ulcers last year but then, I should have thought to take extra precautions for his teeth.

Along with the devastation came the reflex action of wanting some sort of 'justice'. Once again, if my life were a cartoon you'd see me shaking my fists at the dentist and yelling "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS" No such luck in real life because, he's on holidays! I've approached the clinic and a colleague of his has taken a look at Aaron and of course defended the work - she was very convincing too. I was so confused because she had a different and more positive assessment of the situation. I'm not a dentist, I have no inkling of whether the information I am receiving is sound or not. To put my mind at ease and have more ammunition for finger pointing in the near future, we went to yet another dentist. This one basically agreed with the paediatric dentist.

There is plenty more but I'll spare you the details. I just needed to vent a little. Not too much because the issue isn't closed yet. I wish I could take some sort of legal action but we've been told the legal fees will far outweigh the compensation. That doesn't mean I'm going to put it down because there is still the Queensland Health Commission who will notify the Dental Board of Australia as soon as I put in my complaint.

Enough of the drama, we'll deal with the rest of this stuff next week. The weekend is going to be sunny and cool so we'll be off to the zoo tomorrow morning.