Dentist Visits For Everyone
Published July 21, 2009 @ 02:24PM PT
Going to the dentist and getting his teeth checked without sedation or being restrained in something like a "papoose": This was one of the things I noted we've been able to teach Charlie through a lot of hard work, ours and most of all, his own. Yesterday's Las Vegas Review-Journal features Dr. Jeff Kinner, who has, for the past two years, reserved Mondays to see only autistic children. Kinner notes that sometimes he'll see a child three to four times before actually starting to work on their teeth; he draws on techniques of Applied Behavior Analysis learned from occupational therapists.
Certainly going to the dentist is all-out sensory over-stimulating (not to mention painful) experience. We've been lucky to find a pediatric dentist who also devotes some of his time to seeing children with disabilities. But will there be similar professionals willing to see Charlie when he's an adult?
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Comments (6)
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Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.
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My dentist is pretty cool. There are hardly any dentists where I am who will take patients at welfare plan rates (most add a surcharge to bump the price up to dental college rates), so that helps to find the dentists who are more considerate.
For me it helps that when I was a kid we just had to open wide, but as an adult I get to use those dental things that prop your jaw open. And they finally got the taste of the fluoride right, after years of saying they did and didn't.
Not to scare you, but I think that I actually find the dentist harder as I get older and more aware of what's going on in my body. I just have to do a lot of self-talk to keep a lid on it. Plus they have it on my chart that I find too much water or suction too hard, so they use the old fashioned pick as much as possible in cleaning, instead of this new water sonar stuff. And I can skip the polish.
And I know now from experience that regular check ups are a lot easier than a root canal. That's always motivating. Also I know, too, that if things get really bad I can probably take a sedative, like I do for my pap smears.
Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 07/21/2009 @ 04:17PM PT
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"But will there be similar professionals willing to see Charlie when he's an adult?"
That's a reasonable question since we have a relative passle of pediatric special needs dentists (ours has been a peach) but at least based on a search of a couple of years ago, the numbesr who may be available to serve adults, esp. severe needs adults, dry up considerably in proportion. Doing that search for an urgent emergency case, I was on the phone for hours and came up with less than 10 in the entire state, almost all in the major metropolitan area (and one of them was retiring). I hope that my experience represents a lag between the number needing the service and ramp up time. If there's a dental professional who has some pointers, hopefully s/he will speak up with some words of wisdom- our state association was kind of helpful but it did not strike me that this was a high priority either.
Dental care for some reasons seems to be taken as more optional than medical care, but good oral health is a huge factor in physical health and quality of life.
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 07/21/2009 @ 05:50PM PT
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And then there's the concern about doctors too---so many specialists now for him as a child but just seeing him tower over the other kids in the waiting room has made me think about the future.
I do know of some dental practices here that go out of their way for adult patients with "issues" about the dentist so perhaps one of them might be a possibility for Charlie.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 07/21/2009 @ 06:07PM PT
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I first took my ASD kiddo to the dentist when he was weeks old, I was desperate to figure out why he couldn't nurse correctly and his pediatrician was not helpful - my blisters were of no consequence to him in view of my baby's weight gain. That was, of course, the easiest dental visit, even though it wasn't fruitful.
Finding a good pediatric dentist is very possible, finding a good amalgam-free dentist is also very possible. But finding a good pediatric, amalgam-free dentist? That's our challenge.
Posted by Cheryl White on 07/21/2009 @ 08:41PM PT
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A tall order! Charlie has yet to have any fillings; not sure that will last.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 07/21/2009 @ 08:59PM PT
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There is an excellent dentist here who sees special needs kids, but I think have been told this person doesn't take insurance. The website seems to indicate otherwise though. I went with a client, who for the first time when I went, actually saw the dentist. They have a certain hygentist who always sees the kids with autism, and she was great. They went slow, provided lots of reinforcers, and didn't push to the extent of making her upset. They also provided some things to practice at home to help get her used to things to come in the future, like x-rays. Being terrified of dentists myself (I haven't been in almost 5 years due to the extreme fear) I wish I could get something like this.
Posted by Jen Rosenblum on 07/22/2009 @ 06:05PM PT
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