Root canal for 6 year old child

[Kenny202]

My GF son looks like he's developed a couple of small holes in his back molars. Obviously from a diet of coke and rubbish in his former life in a village. She took him to the dentist clinic this morning and they said they don't do kids, she will need to take him to a child's dentist. First time I have heard of that but anyway we're in Thailand. She showed me (translate) what the guy said and translated to "root canal" without even looking in his mouth! I said what? For a 5yo child with a hole? What about a filling? The tooth will fall out anyway in a year or two. She agreed the dentist also told her the tooth would come out in a year or two naturally. The clincher was she tells me its 5000 baht per tooth and takes one hour lol.

 

Now I am no dentist and not sure if things have changed or not but a root canal on two molars never took 1 hour to complete nor would it be needed with a small child. I adore the little guy and if that's what needed I am all for it but I wont aid and abet people taking advantage of this sort of situation. Anybody had any experience with this? I have myself been to this particular clinic and the first thing always comes out of their mouth is root canal. I always tell them filling please.

 

Before anyone jumps in, please.... I been with this girl 4 years so no comments she's running a scam on me or in cahouts with the dentist. I know her well enough to know that's not the case.

[G Rex]

This sounds like typical opportunistic dentistry to me.

when I was a kid, we had fillings  not much else.  I noticed when my kids were growing up we had more advanced procedures offered to us , I always refused.

on a slightly different tangent - in my previous line of work (vet) I did a lot of dentistry - mainly cleaning or removing teeth.  Over the last 10 years or so, some of my colleagues started performing root canals , crowns etc for dogs ????. Totally unnecessary IMO , but owners were ‘guilted’ into having the procedures done.

if I was in your position, I would be taking my son to another vet (I mean dentist). ????

[Sheryl]

Root canal can easily take an hour or more (per session, and would usually  require multiple sessions). It would also usually cost more than 5,000 baht total (maybe 5k per session and then around 3 sessions = 15k). and it is impossible to determine the need for a root canal, at any age, without examination first. I think something may have been lost in translation here?

 

In addition it  would usually make no sense  to do one on baby teeth in a six year old. Just extract the tooth if necessary.

 

In much younger children/babies, a root canal is sometimes justified because there are still many years before the permanent teeth come in and early extraction can create problems with tooth alignment as the permanent teeth come in. But at age 6, seems pointless.

 

Get another opinion.

[Duke007]

1. If the dentist make a treatment recommendation for a root canal without a visual exam and an x-ray, I suggest changing dentists.

2. When you say "root canal", there is a big difference between a full root canal treatment on an adult molar       (that may cost 20000 baht and take 3 appointments) and a pediatric pulpotomy that certainly can be done in one hour for 500p baht. On a basic charge form, both of these procedures could be listed as " root canal".

3. Extracting a deciduous tooth at age 6 is not always the best treatment, when you consider that some baby teeth don't come out until about age 12 and premature loss can lead to problems with the eruption of the permanent dentition.

4. There certainly are occasions when performing a root canal and crown on a dog is justified- military working dog that breaks a canine.

[ourdon]

On 9/2/2021 at 9:13 AM, Sheryl said:

Root canal can easily take an hour or more (per session, and would usually  require multiple sessions). It would also usually cost more than 5,000 baht total (maybe 5k per session and then around 3 sessions = 15k). and it is impossible to determine the need for a root canal, at any age, without examination first. I think something may have been lost in translation here?

 

In addition it  would usually make no sense  to do one on baby teeth in a six year old. Just extract the tooth if necessary.

 

In much younger children/babies, a root canal is sometimes justified because there are still many years before the permanent teeth come in and early extraction can create problems with tooth alignment as the permanent teeth come in. But at age 6, seems pointless.

 

Get another opinion.

What she said!!!   Just for comparison I think I'm about to get charged around 30,000 Baht to get a root canal in Canada. 

[VocalNeal]

On 9/2/2021 at 10:13 PM, Sheryl said:

in addition it  would usually make no sense  to do one on baby teeth in a six year old.

My brother was a dentist. My daughter was 4 and a dentist said she had an underbite and needed braces. I phoned him up and he said "Can she eat?" 

 

Same logic as above. They were only her baby teeth. 

 

Maybe your GF's son needs some dental work to tend to sugar rotten teeth but... 

[Will B Good]

If it is a baby tooth (lost track of when teeth come through) simple extraction. Job done.

 

If it is still a baby tooth, what would a root canal do to the adult tooth underneath??

Edited September 4, 2021 by Will B Good

[CharlieH]

I had a root canal recently, 4 sessions, each one around 40 minutes. Total 7000 thats just to give info.

I would say take it out ! Back tooth there is rarely am alignment issue when the next one comes through. I am sure the child will do fine in in the interim waiting for that one to come back.

 

I believe the decision for a root canal here is money driven and nothing more. Besides that, a root canal at any age is unpleasant, you could put him off dentists for life if he gets a rough ride and a that could be more damaging to his teeth overall further down the road.

[Sticky Rice Balls]

Give us all a heads up if you do it so we can all be far away from that youngster!

[Kenny202]

Have no intention of doing it. I got the same experience everytime time I went to a dentist here. First words come out of their mouth root canal. Last time I just smiled at him and said filling please. He smiled back and said ok. My GF has an appointment Tuesday govt clinic. Im sure they will either do a filling or extraction.