Dental question

[Alice]

Hi,

Probably you remember when I posted about a bad dental visit when Luke had terrible infection after bitting his numb lip.

We went to see another doctor and he told us, that he needs to use analgesia for teeth treatment and there is no way he can treat child with DS who do not cooperate without analgesia.

Here is my question:

What can I do to prevent lip bitting?
I am so frustrated, because I am not sure that Luke understands that he should not bite his numb lip.

Thank you for any advice,
Alice

[andrewsmom]

Ok... not sure if this will help or not, but my niece has also bit her lip while it was still numb from novicane. She is 5 years old. She just had to go back to the dentist this week for more and this time the dentist put cotton in between her teeth and cheek, so she could not bite down. He told her she could not take it out until dinner, which was way beyond the time she would be numb for. My sister told her it was ok to take it out because she was not numb anymore but she started crying telling my sister..."but Mommy, the dentist said I couldn't take it out until dinner!" LOL!!!

I don't know if your little boy would handle having cotton in his mouth like that, but it has worked for my neice. I wish you good luck!!!

-Trisha

[Connie]

Alice,

No real advice here but I don't know if it's he doesn't understand he's not suppose to bit his lip or he just doesn't have any control over that. Heck, I'm old enough to know better and still bite my lip/check when I've been numbed!!

Hugs,
Connie

[Radonna]

Alice,
I still accidently bite mine when mine are numb too.
one thing that helps me is leaving the packing and gauze in but in a child I am not sure that it will work
maybe give him a popcicle or something that he will suck on until some of the feeling is back
maybe keep his mouth doing something but biting
I know mine wont put a popcicle down till it is done. Also it is when I try to talk that I usually bite mine.

I hope he doesn't bite himself bad this time.

Radonna

[tworiveras]

I know exactly what you mean. Roberto had to have 3 teeth pulled a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I left the room to do something after we got home, he made himself a bowl of cereal (numb lip and all), and set about eating it. He gets his mind set on one thing and won't let go, so he chomped his lip pretty bad. He looked like a monkey for about 2 days. I ended up taking him back to the dentist who wrote him a prescription for preventive antibiotics and pain meds. Sorry I can't help, but at least you know you're not alone.
Good Luck

Karen

[Emilysmom]

Alice,
I know what you mean!! Emily had her very first cavity 2 weeks ago, and had to get a filling. We are BIG chickens at our house, so we always get nitrous oxide in addition to the novacaine! After her filling, the doctor made this long narrow piece of gauze that looked just like a small "tampon", with a string coming from it. He told Emily she had to leave it in for one hour to prevent her from biting her lip. I didn't realize it, till we got to the van, but the minute we got outside the dentist's office, she tossed that thing in the bushes!!! (Jordan saw her)

I knew I couldn't prevent her from biting her lip/cheek, but kept her busy doing other things so she wouldn't realize that meal time had passed. We didn't eat until the numbness wore off.......and fortunately, she did not bite her lip or cheek at all. I know that it's easy for kids (and us too) to bite their lips ANYtime when they are numb, but at least if they aren't eating/chewing/drinking at the time it might decrease the chances.

Susan

[Alice]

Thank you all for your inputs!

Just want to add: Luke did not bit his lip accidentally, hi did it for purpose while sitting in the car (on the back sit) and helped himself with his fingers. So, big cotton tampon could be a big help (I hope).

Thanks you for understanding my pain for my baby.