Pediatric Dentist Archives - Parma Ridge Family Dental

Can an Infected Tooth Cause a Fever?

Posted on September 25, 2023 by writeradmin.

I tried to schedule an emergency appointment with our pediatric dentist because my daughter keeps getting a fever and recently mentioned a tooth is bothering her. They said that infected teeth do not cause fevers. They were willing to schedule an appointment but it is four months out. Are they correct because I took her to the doctor and he didn’t find anything because her only symptom was the fever. They’re assuming it’s viral. They did run a strep, flu, and covid test, all of which were negative. I don’t know what else it could be except the tooth.

Amy

Dear Amy,

I am hoping there was a miscommunication here. The truth is an infection anywhere in your body, including the mouth, can cause a fever. It doesn’t always do that, but the potential is there.

Do you know if they checked her for a sinus infection? Depending on where the roots of her teeth are located in relation to her sinus cavity, there can be pain radiating from her sinuses. I know someone who went to the dentist three times for tooth related pain and each time the dentist found nothing. She eventually figured out it was her sinuses flaring up.

All that being said, I feel like between the fact that they told you a tooth infection can’t cause a fever and they can’t see your daughter for four months, even though she’s mentioned tooth pain, you may not be at the best dentist for your daughter. What you don’t want is for this to blow up into a dental emergency between now and when they scheduled you if the problem really is the tooth.

There are family dentists who treat both adult and children. I don’t know how old your daughter is, but one way to tell if they are good with children is the age they are first willing to treat a child. If they say bring them in once they turn around eight years old or more, they don’t really enjoy children and might not have the right demeanor to work well with them. Look for a family dentist who will see toddlers. They know how to deal with children or they would not have a toddler come!

This blog is brought to you by Parma Ridge Dentist Dr. Rebecca Gecovich.

Did My Son’s Dentist Miss Something?

Posted on September 23, 2022 by writeradmin.

I was taking my son to our regular dentist, who thought he saw the start of a cavity but couldn’t tell with certainty because my son isn’t the best at sitting still. He’s five, so I understand the struggle. I decided to take him to a pediatric dentist wondering if that would be a better fit for him. They were able to get him to sit still and examine him. They did confirm there was a cavity there. We scheduled a follow-up appointment for the filling and they used dental sedation to keep him still during the procedure. I was a bit surprised after the appointment when they told me the decay was more extensive than they expected so they had to do a pulpotomy. How could they have missed something so big? Or did they just do unnecessary work on him?

Sara

Dear Sara,

I am glad you wrote. Bear in mind that I haven’t examined your child, but I can give some guidance here. There is one thing that concerns me about this but before we go into that I wanted to go over what your dentist likely did right.

Did they miss something? Possibly, but it may not have been preventable. Your general dentist had limited information to draw from because he was having trouble with a wiggly wee-one. While the pediatric dentist did get to do an examination and x-rays, sometimes x-rays don’t tell you enough. They are two-dimensional images for a three-dimensional space. It may not have been possible for them to get an idea of the depth of the decay.

If the pulpotomy was done on a back tooth, it was probably necessary. Those baby molars have to stay intact until your son is around twelve years old, so it is important to do as much as possible to save those teeth.

They Should Have Consulted You

The thing that is off here is that they should have consulted you and obtained your approval before doing an additional procedure on your child. Consent is an important principle in dental care. My recommendation is you have a frank talk with them about making sure from this time forward they have your informed consent before doing any work on your son. If they have a problem with that, you will be better served finding a different pediatric dentist.

This blog is brought to you by Parma Ridge Dentist Dr. Gecovich.

What Do I Do About My Daughter’s Molar?

Posted on December 16, 2019 by writeradmin.

My daughter has two molars which have broken because of decay. Our dentist is recommending we remove her teeth. I don’t know if I should. I was told you don’t want to take out a child’s molars before they are twelve. She’s not quite six years old yet. What do you recommend?

Patty

Dear Patty,

You are correct in the fact that she needs her molars until she is about twelve. However, that isn’t an option at this point. Your daughter’s decay has gotten to the point that her teeth are broken. Occasionally, an infected molar in a child can be treated with a pulpotomy (a child’s version of a root canal treatment). Hers is too far gone.

What you’ll need to do at this point is to extract her broken teeth, but hold the space open as if her molars were still there. Your pediatric dentist can do that by placing space maintainers there.

Why You Need Space Maintainers

A child’s adult molars don’t come in until they are around twelve-years-old and their jaw is large enough to handle them. When their baby molars come out prematurely, that leaves an empty space for too long. The other teeth begin to shift into the open space. That results in crowding as the adult teeth are coming in.

If that happens your daughter will require expensive orthodontics in order to get her teeth into a proper functioning position. Getting a space maintainer, helps to prevent that.

This blog is brought to you by Parma Dentist Dr. Rebecca Gecovich.