[Nickshu]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

There is no way I would subject a 3 year old to a major dental procedure, and I don't know why a Dentist would try to attempt such a thing on such a small child.

Most of the time it's due to chronic dental pain and debilitating decay that prevents the ability to eat/grow/thrive. Also risk of systemic abscess traveling to the brain or bloodstream. Sadly we have seen a few deaths in the USA in the past couple years from untreated/ignored dental infections, some of which were kids. Unfortunately some parents have this mentality and let their child's oral condition deteriorate to the point of being life threatening before pursuing treatment.

What happened is a very sad tragedy but not a reason to avoid necessary dental care. Be cautious, check credentials of your dentist (especially sedation training). Laws vary from state to state on sedation licenses, many of which are too loose.

You should be aware of some of the challenges in providing dental care to low-SES children in the USA. Unfortunately most of these deaths have been in low-SES clinics where undertrained providers are pressured by their organization to do procedures they are not proficient in. Parents also pressure these clinics b/c their kids need care but they can't afford a trip to the OR to have it done. Many of these organizations cannot afford to hire competent practitioners because they rely on Medicaid dental reimbursement which is often lower than practice overhead. Until recently in my state Medicaid would reimburse 60% of my fee, but my practice overhead is 70%. They wonder why no one will sign up for it. Heck I would do it just as a service to the community if I could break even on it, but I can't afford to take a 10% loss.