We had the worst experience at playhouse dental! My 6 year old was there for a routine cleaning. She has good oral hygiene, brushes and flosses well. Has never had any problems as far as cavities or anything that could potentially be a cavity in any previous appts and X-rays.
When talking with her about the upcoming appt she said she didn't want X-rays and I didn't feel she needed them either. She has plenty of space between most of her baby teeth making it easier to see if there's a problem. Because of all these factors we were confident in choosing to not have any X-rays done and subject her to a medical procedure she didn't want or need. We let the assistant know this when she asked about X-rays. After the assistant cleaned her teeth, the male Dr came over to me, got right in my bubble and made me feel like an idiot for not going with the X-ray. I let him know if he could give me some sort of reason why she NEEDED them maybe I'd reconsider. He didn't have much to say other than it helps them to catch potential cavities a little sooner. As I mentioned above this wasn't a concern of ours and if he'd looked in her mouth he'd see this for himself.
He told me that if we were to refuse the X-ray we were NOT WELCOME to come back and we'd have to find a new dentist. I said that's fine we'd do that.
It really made him angry that he wasn't able to change my mind with his threat of having to find a new dentist. At that point he refused to finish the appt or look in my 6 yr old daughters mouth if we stuck with our decision. We did.
Let's not forget he is saying all of this in front of my small child who was already nervous about going to the dentist.
He then proceeds to tell me and my 6 year old that millions of kids end up in the ER each year from Making the choice we had just made.
My daughter was now terrified and crying so I scooped her up and left.
She didn't get an apology for making her scared and cry, she didn't get the balloon she was promised, nothing.
So I spent the 45 minute drive home explaining to my poor little girl that she isnt going to die or be in any medical emergency from refusing a dental X-ray of her healthy baby teeth.
I'm a firm believer in teaching both of my daughters that their body is their own! If they don't want someone to do something to their body wether it's a Dr or anyone! They can always say no!
He told my **6 year old** today that for simply saying no she didn't want a medical procedure done to HER BODY, she wasn't welcome there and she could have scary, emergency, consequences!
I don't think there's anything about this that speaks professionally or someone that should be dealing with children.
I'm of course not a dentist so all I know is what I've read and been told along with my personal experience of being 43 with no cavities and having only 2 X-rays on my teeth my whole life! Oh and I've never been in the ER
So, if this dentist would have chosen to educate me rather than threaten me of why this procedure was necessary for my daughter to be healthy, this whole situation along with the anxiety and fear it's caused my little girl could have been avoided.
I think it really speaks a lot to the professionalism here when the time was taken to post this on Facebook the very next morning, (coincidence I think not) rather than a phone call to apologize to the 6 year old you've now left terrified of ever going back to the dentist.
side note: We've seen one other dentist here for all of my daughter's oral care and it's been great! As well as all of the dental assistants!
My older intellectually disabled daughter has been going to the same dentist for over 8 years and we've never had a problem.
Also your little educational screenshot here states that X-ray are safe for *healthy children* I've read countless publications that dental X-rays should only be taken on children *when necessary*
I'm curious?
If a dentist has already prescribed and X-ray for a patient he's never seen, never examined, doesn't know much about their health and refuses to look in the child's mouth how would he know the X-ray was necessary?
Thankfully both of my children are healthy so they don't require mammogram at 6 yrs old, don't smoke or live in Denver or need any other sort of scans and neither like bananas so these references mean nothing to us. We'll just keep rolling with the natural exposure we can't do anything about and using medical intervention after communication and thorough exam rules it necessary read more