OK so my 4.5 year old daughter Calleigh, has a mouthful of cavities already and one of her bottom molars was so bad that it had eroded down to the dental pulp and was causing inflammation along that side of the dental bed.  We went to Aurora Kids Dentistry last week and consulted with Dr. Peltoniemi.  She needed to have that one tooth extracted ASAP!  And so two days ago, we took Calleigh in at 7:30am to have the procedure done.  They gave her a sedative to drink when we got there and then she got into the dental chair about 30 minutes later.  Next was what every parent hates going through…seeing their child in pain and crying.

The crying first started when the local anesthetic was injected.  Even just looking at that LONG needle they used made ME want to cry (that was one seriously long and scary needle)!  After that, Dr. P performed the extraction.  It’s one of those times when you wish you could be the one suffering instead of your child.  Calleigh was a trooper though.  And after receiving a couple of prizes from the prize bucket, she was in better spirit again.

Of course, being the laser therapy proponent that I am, I had brought my THOR laser therapy system home the night before because I knew it would help with the post-extraction pain and healing.  I’ve never actually used the laser for this purpose before but in the past I’ve seen many research abstracts like these related to its use for dental conditions.  What better opportunity to give it a whirl than with my own kid as the guinea pig.  After all, the worse thing that could happen would be NOTHING!

Around 11 am, the effects of the anaesthetic began to wear off as Calleigh started complaining that her mouth was hurting.  I took out the piece of gauze that she was instructed to bite on to help stop the bleeding.  The spot where the tooth was removed was still bleeding a bit.  So I did a short 3 min treatment on her and then gave her a fresh piece of gauze.  She then fell asleep in my lap until 1 pm!  When she awoke, I asked her how she was feeling and she said there wasn’t any pain.  I checked her mouth again and the bleeding seemed to have stopped completely.  Her grandmother then proceeded to feed her a big bowl of mushy rice which she consumed heartily.  I left for work and when I came home later, I was told that Calleigh had ate another half bowl of mushy rice, a bowl of watermelon AND had demanded that my mother give her some breakfast cereal with milk (she wasn’t supposed to have any hard food grandma!!!).

I checked her mouth again and the area of the tooth extraction looked very good.  Wound was closed significantly and very minimal swelling.  I proceeded to give her another 5 mins of laser therapy.  Half an hour later we had dinner…soft food for Calleigh…no pain, no complaints.

The next morning, Calleigh was her normal self.  Like she hadn’t gone through a tooth extraction just 24 hours earlier.  No pain, no swelling.  The wound had closed and shrunk further.  Another quick 3 min laser treatment before school.  No pain, no complaints.  She ate ‘normal’ food.  Even the gingerbread cookies her mom had packed her (no wonder she’s got a mouthful of cavities)!

Did the laser therapy help with her post-extraction pain and healing?  I like to think so.  Of course this is not a double-blinded, randomized control study that is the gold standard for medical research.  But if my 4 year old can recover from a pretty significant dental procedure in about 24 hours, as a parent I’m happy with a therapy that helps alleviate my kid’s suffering.

I don’t plan on making dental conditions a major focus of the Laser Pain Solution clinic but it’s great to see laser therapy’s potential for treating a variety of soft tissue injuries…even those related to the mouth!