Poor little Michael an abscess can be very painful .
How much is left of the tooth Linda, can you wiggle it loose

The adult teeth should be unaffected, children often knock a tooth out prematurely , the roots are so shallow .

Meg - I'd say about 2/3 of the tooth is left. Thing is, it happened about a year and a half ago and they put a composite 'seal' on it. He had some pain a few months ago and antibiotics in case of infection but it was fine. It's taken this long for anything like real infection to occur.

It's not loose so I don't think I could wiggle it loose.

Hey LS as a child I had 11 teeth removed at three different intervals because my adult teeth were pushing my gum up and around my baby teeth rather than pushing them out

I had two lots done under local anaesthetic at the dentists but by the third and final lot I wouldn't let them near me. The whole process terrified me and as far as I was concerned really hurt! Just the injections were bad enough without someone swinging off my teeth while I was conscious trying to pry them from my mouth. The last lot done under general anaesthetic was much more pleasant, I went in, they knocked me out, they pulled my teeth, I came to, I went home. There was still the pain, swelling and bleeding to deal with but the emotional trauma was much less.

The whole experience has put me off of dentists for life! On a positive note though it did not make any difference to how my adult teeth came through, they are a bit wonky but nothing major

Aww poor boy. I'd go down the GA route. At three I think the injections would be very painful and scary and may put him off dentists for life. Good luck what ever you decide. Xx

Well injections for children shouldn't be painful as the dentist should use an anaesthetic gel to numb the gum before using the needle, poor boy shouldn't feel a thing. If they don't routinely use the gel for kids ask them why not because we used it routinely way back in the dark ages, well the 1970's anyway.

I have recently had teeth removed in hospital and although it was loosely described as GA it was in fact heavy sedation called Propofol which also has the effect of wiping most of the memory of what happened. This sedation is easily managed and reversible. I would recommend the hospital route. Hope all goes well for him.

Maud

Thanks for the insights and advice. I'm taking it all in!

But doesn't hat just stop the feeling of the needle going in, but not the feeling of the pressure of the needle moving around etc. I had a tooth out recently and they did used the gel but I could still feel what was happening as they moved the needle around and they said if there was any real pain I should say immediately as it meant that the needle was getting too near a nerve. I'm not scared of the dentist but had had a bad experience last year at a different dentis so hurst left me a bit apprehensive about having this tooth out but this new dentist is absolutely amazing, there was no real pain at all during the injection but I have had ones that have hurt before.

Well a good dentist shouldn't be moving the needle around once it's in he should take it out move and insert again. I have a private dentist, have had for over 25 years and never feel the injection and I don't have gel, because he says the trick is to put the anaesthetic in very slowly and you won't feel it.

That's probably what they were doing but because I couldn't feel it going in I wouldn't know. I do know that having one that was rubbish at it, and had previously tired to drill with no injection, that it can hurt if not done properly. I love this new dentist so much and she even managed to polish Paul's teeth, which is amazing as he is very dentist phobic.