Re: Chris/Charissa oral surgery

October 22, 2005

Hi

Thanks for your reply. It is always nice to hear about someone with

a similar experience. To tell you the truth, I sometimes feel like

we are the only ones dealing with certain issues, as is one

of the older RSS kids on the listserve & tends to have more of the

rarer issues. Charissa's story sounds almost identical to what we

have been through with so far, with the exception of a

delayed bone age. 's is advanced. His molars are also

ankylosed and the baby teeth weren't falling out to make room for the

permanent ones. He had 8 baby teeth pulled and so far only 1

permanent tooth pulled. I was not told to brush his gums any

differently than normal after the surgery. I am trying to be as firm

as I can without killing him. Truthfully, I think he is handling it

better than I would if I were the one to have the surgery instead of

him!

I hear you about being expensive! is being treated at a

local dental school clinic setting supposedly for free. They took

him on as a research case. I say supposedly, because he has been

passed through so many departments and they all seem to act confused

when I tell them he is being treated as a research case. So, I am am

hoping we won't see any bills. I did have to pay the hospital though

for his surgery. It has taken us 2 years to get to this point, so it

has been a SLOW process!

Kim C.

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the update on 's surgery. We went through some

similar issues with Charissa, so I looked up an old post & updated it

for you here. (The original reply was post #19507)

Charissa didn't need to have permanent teeth removed, but had

extensive dental surgery twice, in conjunction with surgery to close

a hole that was left in one eardrum after her last set of tubes (took

3 tries before the hole sealed successfully). She always complained

more about ear pain than her mouth after these dual-surgeries!

October 23, 2005

Hi Kim,

I'm glad to be able to share our dental experience - I don't think there are too

many kids with as severe dental issues as & Charissa! The ped. dentist

gave me some special oxygenated toothpaste to use on Charissa after her

surgeries (only available from dentists), and since she was unable to adequately

perform the post-surgery care, I had to do the brushing. As I said before,

brushing those open wounds several times a day was so difficult, but it did

work.

It is great that you are connected with the dental school clinic, and I hope

they are learning alot as they help . I know it is hard, waiting for the

treatment plan to be carried out, and I hope when is finally done he

will have had the great results that we have seen in Charissa.

We found our ped dentist and orthodontist through the craino-facial clinic here.

They worked together well, which made it so much easier for me! The ped dentist

gave us a reduced rate, even though we had limited dental insurance, because of

the huge amount of work he had to do. And since the dental surgery was done at

the same time as ear surgery (at a surgery center, not the hospital), we didn't

have to pay for an extra time of anesthesia, etc., which would not have been

covered under the medical / dental plan we had then. We never saw a bill from

the orthodontist the entire time she was in orthodontics! I did have to pay for

some things, like impressions and retainers, but when I asked early in the

treatment I was told it was " covered " and I was *not* to ask for more details or

to ask them again (lol)! We didn't have any orthodontic insurance, so I know

that the orthodontist took Charissa on as his own private research case - he is

a wonderful man who does quite a bit of

community service in rural areas of Alaska. I could give you his contact

info, and the ped dentist contact info, if your dental school clinic contacts

would like to discuss Charissa's treatment with either of them. Feel free to

e-mail me privately at rush4ak @ yahoo.com

Oh, we had to pay the regular rate for the 2 dental implants, but our insurance

changed between the time phase 1 & phase 2 were done, so we got the maximum

reimbursement from insurance both times! I know God was watching out for us -

it helped alot!

in Alaska

RSS-Support wrote:

Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 22:20:05 -0400

From: kimc

Subject: Re: Chris/Charissa oral surgery

Hi