dentist

Took Alex to the dentist (finally...have been waiting three long months, which was the soonest they could get us in) last week. He did really well! He was nervous, and he wouldn't sit in the chair at all...but he sat in my lap and the dentist was able to get a look at all of his teeth. Seems he has a draining abscess on one of his lower right molars. It sounded horrifyingly painful to me, but she said that he was probably not terribly bothered by it, that a canker sore would be more painful. (I'm still not convinced.) She said she wasn't going to put him on antibiotics because it was already draining and "kids are on far too much antibiotics these days as it is". Well...I personally would have loved to have him on antibiotics just in case. Who knows if it'll continue to drain? I guess as long as he doesn't have a fever.....

Anyway, the dentist overall was very great with Alex, but sadly we won't be able to use her as she doesn't take Alex's new Medicaid card. Argh! When we set up the appt months ago, we didn't know Alex would be getting onto Medicaid, so it wasn't something I bothered asking about. So now we either have to go back to the old dentist that we weren't very fond of, try to get seen by a dentist that serves adult patients or go all the way up to Portland (I'm sure there are other pediatric dentists that take Medicaid in cities closer, but Portland apparently has a wonderful program and since we already see the neurologist up there...).

The abscessed tooth needs to be removed (it's a baby tooth under a crown). We need to use someone who takes Medicaid or else we'll have to pay around $1000 after insurance takes care of their portion. Alex doesn't officially have Medicaid until Oct 19th. I really really hope he isn't in pain, but we have been much more generous with the Tylenol since finding out.