Say "Cheese!"

I don't know if any of you remember William's cavities.... or that he had to go to a pediatric dentist in Boise and all that.... but good news! We got them all fixed!

He went and saw the new dentist at the end of October, and sure enough, wouldn't cooperate. So they had to schedule him for an operating room at the hospital, put him all the way under, get x-rays and do his fillings while he was asleep. We had to be super careful to brush his teeth before he went to bed and watch what he ate so the cavities wouldn't get any bigger, which was fun. They couldn't get him in until December 4th, and you'd think that would be plenty of time for insurance to approve the hospital part.

Our dental doesn't cover hospital stuff, and our medical doesn't cover anything dental, so the dental approved the x-rays and fillings - a big general approval since we didn't know exactly what he'd end up needing. That only took a couple of weeks to come through.

But the medical was a different story. They submitted a request for authorization for the anesthesia and operating room stuff. Usually our insurance gets back within days. This time it took over a month. The week prior, I checked back with the dentist, it still hadn't come through. We had William's physical exam that's required before they put a small child under. Still hadn't come through that Wednesday - his surgery was on Friday. Wonder of wonders, as I'm getting really nervous, I checked back Thursday, late morning, and there it was. Approved!!!! Cutting it a little close, but at least it went through!

Mark left early Friday morning with William, and they got home early afternoon. Turns out that the molars with cavities had more soft spots or something, because he has 3 silverish caps. 2 on bottom and 1 on top now. With additional white fillings and some sealants. Ouch! But it's all done now, and I think we will continue to bring him to that dentist even though it's quite the drive, in the hopes that William becomes more comfortable with opening wide. Poor kiddo, I'll have to ask what the caps are made of, for when his teeth fall out. Not cheap I'm sure, so I don't know what we'll do with them then! :-)