Dental Work, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Anxiety
Dental work, Asperger’s syndrome, and anxiety - those three phrases do not go together! They are, however, my reality. Well actually, they are my son’s reality. He was complaining of a toothache on Friday night and yesterday I managed to get him in with a fabulous pediatric dentist who has experience with children on the spectrum. The dentist’s niece has Asperger’s Syndrome so he “gets it.” Alexander did great yesterday - he let the tech take x-rays which involved foreign objects in his mouth. He also did a great job during the cleaning only gagging a couple of times; he probably only swallowed half of the fluoride this time! It has been a year since his last cleaning (I know, bad mommy) but the sensory integration therapy and Wilbarger brushing protocol helped tremendously.
So the bad news is that he has a between the teeth infected cavity! The dentist said no more raisins, gummy worms, fruit roll-ups, etc. I let the dentist know that Alexander doesn’t like raisins and can’t have the other foods as he’s on the Feingold Diet which eliminates artificial flavors and colors of which gummy candy has. I then went on to explain that Alexander doesn’t like anything chewy as he has low oral-motor tone and chewing is a chore. I wish he’d eat raisins, it would help build his muscle strength in his jaw! The dentist asked about juice - nope, not much in the way of juice either (maybe a few days a month). So here’s my conundrum of a child with an interesting cavity.
So we’ll go back in two weeks and they will sedate him with Versed, then give him laughing gas, and follow-up with local anesthetic. They did let me now they’ll wrap him in a Velcro blanket. My son is tactile defensive and claustrophobic. Dear God help us on March 11! I explained it all to my son and practiced rolling him up in a blanket. Thankfully he’s a smart guy so understood everything I said. I think we’ll be fine before and during the procedure but afterwards is where I’m concerned.
Alexander is to skip his clonidine the night before and the day of the procedure he will not be able to take his Focalin XR nor his Risperdal. Alexander is combative under stress and I’ve been told that Versed can make even the most docile child combative as they come out of it. Woohooo, yay me! Alexander is a scrawny little guy (a whopping 41 pounds now) but when he’s in the throes of an outburst someone always gets hurt. My mom is going to try to come with me to the appointment so she can help me afterwards. I’m going to stay positive and think that Alexander wil just be giddy and loopy coming out of it - I don’t want my butt kicked my a six year old!
If you’ve had experience with Versed - please, please share them with me. I’ll take the good, the bad, and the ugly.
