Our six year old child is Autistic but still capable of having routine doctors appointments…read moreperformed by a typical doctor. The key to helping her through her appointments is informed consent, and giving her time to process the presented information and feel her feelings, which is typical for many autistic people. This accommodation typically takes 10 minutes, and has been respected by many of her other doctors.
When we took her to Dentistry For Children to have her spacer, which is causing significant pain, removed, the dentist instructed us to lie to our child about needing a shot for the numbing agent, and to instead surprise her. Our child has gotten shots before and, as we firmly believe that children are people who deserve to be told the truth of what will happen to their bodies, we attempted to explain the process to her.
The dentist continued to interrupt and speak over us, trying to convince our child that she would not be receiving a shot, while explaining that they prefer to use "more child friendly terms" like "sleepy juice" and they would "hide" the needle so our child wouldn't be aware that she was getting a shot. Personally, I prefer to know if I will be stuck with a needle, and I know my child does as well. Furthermore, our child is 6, not 2, and is difficult to surprise without a dramatic response.
After explaining that we would not lie to our child, the dentist left and we were asked to come back that Friday, when the dentist would have more time to talk it over & explain to our child what was happening.
We spent the next day or two explaining the procedure to our child as it had been explained to us. On the day of the appointment, despite having been told we would have more time, we were rushed, introduced to a tool that none of us had been aware of which panicked our child, and when I tried to ask the dentist what the tool was, I was asked to leave the room. It seems clear to me that I was my child's loudest advocate and the dentist was looking to remove opposition, but 3 minutes later they urgently requested my return as my child was now even more upset, before cancelling the procedure entirely.
We were recommended to reach out to the DDD, an autistic-friendly facility, but they were unable to accept new patients for 7 months, which is not plausible given the amount of pain the spacer is causing her. When we contacted Dentistry For Children again to request another attempt, we were told the dentist would not see her period.
I feel entirely gutted, disrespected, & uncomfortable that this dentist office lies to children about medical procedures, refuses to see disabled patients, and ignores a parent's expertise about their own child.
If you can, find your child a different doctor.
