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I'm not a 7 year old diabetic, I'm a boy who has Type 1 Diabetes
My son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes just over 5 years ago. He was only a ...
Added 22 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 6 hours ago
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My son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes just over 5 years ago. He was only a baby; unable to communicate with me about how he felt or what he was going through.
He has recently turned 7, and today, underwent a procedure to remove 4 baby teeth. They had been causing discomfort for a long time, until one night he revealed that he was "tired of having toothache."
After extensive x-rays, it was discovered that years of Diabetes-related mouth ulcers, absesses,infections and antibiotics had left four of his teeth decayed at the back, and then the nerves were affected, which was causing the pain.
As a result of random, unpredictable and life-threatening hypoglycaemic attacks all his life,doctors were worried about removing them under general anaesthetic, (which is general protocol in Australia,) even for an adult tooth extraction.
It was therefore decided that it would be much safer if my son could have them removed in the dentist's chair, along with local anaesthetic (14 needles in his gums) and nitrous oxide ( laughing gas.) The dentist was confident, but still concerned that he would panic and not allow her to remove the teeth safely, or that his blood sugar would drop and he would require a glucagon injection.
Thankfully-he was fantastic and reacted to the gas very well. He was very relaxed and felt no pain.His blood sugar rose to 18mmol/L through stress and anxiety, however it was better than a hypo, especially in a dental chair. I was able to monitor his blood sugar throughout the procedure with a glucometer. Bless..he doesn't remember a thing.
He has four little gaps in his mouth tonight, and as a result of only eating soft foods, has already endured a 1.5mmol/L hypo attack this afternoon. He was lucid enough to drink juice through a straw, but it was still frightening enough to leave me feeling very weary this evening. It concerns me that despite excellent oral hygiene for all of his life, this procedure had to occur to ensure his adult teeth could come through without any problems. The worst possible scenario is that he could have developed an absess,that was not visible, thus developing an infection that could have potentially lead to fatal blood poisoning.
At 7 years of age, and officially making it through his first diabetic complication, I can't help but wonder what will be next...it's just my way. However, I am so thankful that he is well tonight and he was able to experience the latest dental technology that made this procedure as comfortable and painless as possible.
I have learnt NEVER to take my eye off Diabetes and all its little tricks and masquerades. Hopefully I can protect him from having to undergo anything like this for some time!
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