Pediatric Dental Nightmare
My son is 3.5 years old. We took him to a pediatric dentist and was told he had 11 teeth with cavities in them. They want to use general anesthesia at a hospital and fill all of the teeth. This would cost $2000 for the dentist and $2500 for the hospital - quite a lot of money. We don't have dental insurance.
So, we decided to get a 2nd opinion. The 2nd pediatric dentist said he had 13 teeth with cavities and wants to put crowns on 10 of them. $3600 for the dentist, $2500 for the hospital.
I am absolutely sick to my stomach. We are pretty strict parents when it comes to eating. The kids never have soda, have not gone to bed with bottles, eat candy only on special occasions (holidays etc... ). Admittedly, we didn't realize how bad fruit snacks, raisins etc.. Are - but I can't believe he has 13 teeth with cavities because of this.
Anyway, my question is why are the two opinions so drastically different? Should we get a 3rd opinion? And I suppose we really need to treat this (right?) - but I'm not sure how much we can change in our diet to prevent this from happening in the future (and to our younger kids).
Obviously, cut out the fruit snacks and make them brush 3 times a day. I just don't understand. As a kid, I wasn't the best brusher - and I've never had a cavity in my life. What else can we do?