[anothersadmom]

A child was tied down using a papoose board for some dental care on his baby teeth. Anyone have opinions on this? Am I nuts for thinking this is not the "best practice". I've been very upset after hearing about this being done to children.

[N0help4u]

I think it may depend on the child and how they react to it and if you prepare them for it first.
I am sure that it could be too much torture for some kids, especially ones with ADHD
The alternative is sedating or numbing them with a drug.
I am not familiar with any other method.

I couldn't find the article. Do you have to sign in to get it?

[anothersadmom]

Here is a link to an investigative report I was reading about it:

I-Team: Small Smiles|ABC 7 News

Be careful, it has some disturbing video of a child being strapped down.

It really upset me.

[N0help4u]

Like I said if the parent can explain what they are going to do and the child can be calm
(and they probably should allow the parent to hold the child's hand the whole time) then
I don't see anything wrong with it. BUT if a kid is going to go into it crying, fighting and freaking out then NO they should stop right then and there and not go through with it.

[flossie]

I've heard of it but have never witnessed it. I can only imagine how traumatic it would be for the child! The child would be fearful for every dental visit. I don't care whether these children are on Medicaid or not, they need to be treated as human beings with feelings and not a commodity. How can these clinics stay open?? Everyone should be treated equally and not by how much money they have.

Here our welfare system will pay for a child to have all of their teeth fixed under general anaesthetic. We find these children are more co-operative for future appointments because they don't have any memory of it being an unpleasant experience.

Parents should always be in the room while their child is being treated. If the "office policy" is no parent in the treatment room then I'd suggest you find another dentist.
When you are in the treatment room you are there for support for your child and should not interfere with the treatment.

I can't imagine any dental licensing body allowing the use of these "papoose boards", they are barbaric and any dentist using them should lose their dental license.

[flossie]

The public has to step up. I don't know if petitioning the dental licensing body would help. It's a shame that these kids need the dental treatment and have no other options??

[N0help4u]

Anesthesia scares me.
A friend of mine in his 50's never came out of the anesthesia after his surgery.
He died the same weekend the Pope did April 2005.

The BIG needles dentists use too even scared me too death even when I was a teen.

I even bit the dentist a few times:eek:

[bijounmepani]

Hi there.,. I am a practicing dentist from mumbai.., have u any idea where would a papoose board be available in india,. m looking for one since a pretty long time,,

[saltekar]

While it may seem rough to some of you tender hearts, it is much much better for the child than giving them general anesthesia which is the other alternative. From what I understand, general anesthesia is basically a poison which has very long term insidious effects that the medical industry will not tell you about. The dentist of course prefer it as the child is knocked out and totally compliant. But for our children we would much rather prefer the one or two day trauma of being strapped down (painlessly) to having them drugged for the dentists convenience.

[flossie]

Often they will use the papoose AND sedation.