Dentist Appointments

Tonight I am sitting here with Jackson soaking up all the happy moments he is having. Normally something sets him off for no apparent reason and head banging ensues, but tonight he has been in such a great mood from the time that I picked him up at school and I am loving every minute of it. These are the best days, but as a Special Needs Parent we know they are far and few between, because we face struggles and uncertainties that other families don’t have to worry about and honestly probably don’t think about.

While I am enjoying these moments, I cannot help but think about tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, Jackson will be going under anesthesia for a dental appointment. At his first dentist appointment they examined his mouth for about 30 seconds and found 2 small cavities on the back of his two front teeth. As a child with Fragile X Syndrome, Jackson has a lot of anxiety and will not sit still for a checkup, so we know he will not sit for a filling or two. While he is under they will give him a full dental exam, get x-rays and they offered that if we needed any blood work or shots to be given they could do all that as well.

In the year and a half since learning Jackson’s diagnosis we have learned to accept a lot of things, things we never thought we would experience in our lives and this is another one of those things. We know that if Jackson ever has other dental issues this will be the approach needed for all those visits. On top of the stress and anxiety we feel on a regular day it now becomes amplified thinking about this appointment. There is no way to know what Jackson will be feeling tomorrow, but we know all we can tell him is he is going to the dentist. We cannot prepare him to be put under, we cannot prepare him for the discomfort he will feel after, if any. We are basically helpless. It also becomes costly and we have found out that not all insurances will cover this expense, so you have to provide a letter of medical necessity and hope the insurance company picks up some of the bill. So, tonight we hope and pray it isn’t traumatizing for him. We hope and pray everything goes smoothly. We hope and pray we have no more dental issues to avoid the need for anesthesia in the future, but we also need to be realistic that this is probably not the last time we deal with this.

Keep us and Jackson in your thoughts and prayers and we will update you tomorrow!

XOXO