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Health

Mother Dismayed When 4-Year-Old Goes to Dentist for Routine Procedure and Comes Out Looking Like This

Jan. 17, 2013 11:15am Liz Klimas

Savannah White is only 4-years-old, a little young to be given the designation “metal mouth” since braces are still several years in her future and all her adult teeth have yet to come in. But after a trip to the dentist office to fill what mom though was a few cavities, a full set of silver capped teeth is what she was left with.

4 Year Old Savannah White Receives Silver Caps on All Her Teeth in Miscommunication Between Mother and Dentist

Savannah White, age 4, was given all silver caps on her teeth when her mother thought she was only getting four fillings. (Image via AZ Family)

“I didn’t expect for her entire mouth to be covered in silver,” Savannah’s mom Alecia White said, according to AZ Family. “We went in to have a couple of cavities done and she came out with a mouth full of silver.”

White said the 4-year-old was self-conscious of her appearance afterward.

“On a daily basis she says, ‘Mommy, I don’t like my teeth. I don’t like my teeth,’” White said. “And it’s really kind of hard to hear every single day.”

(Image via AZ Family)

Watch this report regarding the incident:

AZ Family asked a separate pediatric dentist to review Savannah’s case. Dr. Richard Chaet said putting crowns on all her teeth appears to have been merited given the level of deterioration and potential for further problems.

One commenter on this story explained that Savannah likely had a pulpotomy, which is when infected dental nerve tissue is removed and replaced with dental cement and capped with a stainless steel crown to ultimately save the tooth. The commenter bringing up pulpotomy as the medical procedure the child probably had called it the “child-sized version of a root canal.”

Chaet noted the communication between the mother and the dentist should have been better to prevent the shock afterward.

Watch AZ Family’s report:

Chaet also noted that given the number of crowns that were needed, most dentists would have used white veneers instead of stainless steel.

Savannah after her silver caps were replaced with white veneers. (Image via AZ Family)

After a local dentist heard of Savannah’s story, he volunteered to put new caps on the child free of charge.

Some commenters on the story though have pointed out the issue of the girl’s teeth becoming so deteriorated that such measures were necessary in the first place.

One commenter on Medical Daily wrote, “It’s obvious this child teeth are terribly neglected and several either rotted out or were pulled out? Then [you] gripe because they cap the rest?”

Others on AZ Family’s main story wrote things like:

Maybe the mom should brush her kids teeth…. – David Vanicelli
Sounds to me like the parents were letting the child eat the wrong foods and were not cleaning her teeth. – Paula Griffiths
[A] child that young shouldn’t have teeth that bad without a serious level of neglect. – Bhig Bhad Wolf

Let us know what you think about the situation in our comments section below.

(H/T: Yahoo! News)

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Comments (191)

vlbennett66
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:21pm
Don’t be too quick to judge these parents. Our daughter was afflicted with teeth that emerged with no enamel due to a high fever when she was a baby. Not one dentist discovered this deficit until she was around six; said he’d never seen it before but had read of it in dental school. We had kept insisting she was not brushing properly, as her teeth were always a tan color. Turned out she was in constant pain but had never known any other condition, poor kid. She required several teeth to be pulled, and even her adult teeth necessitated 19 crowns! Not a small sum to rehabilitate a child’s mouth. Sometimes things are not as they seem.

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Abraham Young
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:18pm
I disagree with the way modern dentistry does things anyway. Most of them still believe fluoride is good for teeth. There is a lot of witch doctoring going on these days. For all of our vaunted superiority, we still have a long long way to go.

And undoubtedly the dentist’s union doesn’t mind “preserving” baby teeth so they can milk them for all they are worth while they still can. Then when the adult teeth come in, it’s a double play.

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bornagaincowgirl
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:15pm
When my kids were 4-years-old I would never send them to sit in the dentist chair by themselves, I would be sitting there right beside them, and if the dentist had a problem with that then I would walk out. I would never send my child unattended and where I couldn’t see them to the dentist chair.

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so3
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 4:02pm
I have neighbors from Ukraine and they do not take the kids to the dentist until permanent teeth come in..they figure it’s a waste of money and time. Maybe, but their rotten, black teeth kinda make them look homeless…

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AlcoholicMB
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:58pm
Perhaps this was the dentist’s way of shocking the mother into better parental practices? Maybe it was a wake up call for the mother and will make the child want to have good hygiene in the future.

Sometimes people need a good kick in the pants, you know?

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TheRemedy
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:53pm
I’m sorry, I don’t buy this for a minute. This mother was consulted. There’s no way a dentist would not consult with the parent and get some agreement on treatment before proceeding. No way!

Perhaps the mother didn’t understand everything, but she was consulted. She may have remorse, but let’s not be so quick to fault the dentist as a money-grubbing low-life.

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KyleD
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:52pm
Of course the kid hates her teeth, you’re making her open her mouth for millions of photos.

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gr8t2bfree
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:47pm
Why is this even a story??? This is more common than you might think!

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neozon
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:41pm
Brush your teeth!

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:39pm
Maybe the Mother should ask what exactly the procedure is! That might be the minimum this mother might think to do. Caps? Okay- what exactly is this and how does this affect my child? Secondary teeth?

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TheePolitinator
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:30pm
So, what’s the big deal? With silver and gold on the rise still pop it out and save it. /sarchastic

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freestaterev
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:26pm
With the price of silver, she might have a mouthful of $$$

Ok, but seriously, there are some rappers that pay some big bucks to get bling like that on their grill! Add a few diamonds, or Cubic Zirconia, and she would be the hippest kid in the class…well, in some schools.

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Singinjeannie
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:22pm
When my children are being treated by a dentist, I’m sitting in the room with them – so I bet I’d have a clue what was being done to my kid. Either the dentist didn’t communicate with the Mom – or the Mom didn’t listen to what he said he was going to do. This is a major change to a child’s appearance with little communication to a parent first.

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Virginia Rebel
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:22pm
Thank God they aren’t adult teeth and get ready to save all that silver as the teeth fall out, assuming it is really silver. It might be worth a fortune down the road.

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leasecommander
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 3:19pm
I am a dentist and there are numerous conditions that could have caused this gross amount of decay and without any further information, I have no idea what was, and what is, going on, but a 4 year old normally hasn’t lost all of their front baby teeth. I don’t know if the dentist was at fault for poor communication or if the Mom didn’t hear or understand the explanation of the treatment.
The simple answer is that we don’t have enough information to place the blame anywhere.

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ContinentalArmy
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:56pm
Both my niece and I have bad teeth. Each of us even had a permanent tooth to come in rotten. I don’t think neglect had anything to do with this. I think she just has bad teeth. I do think the dentist SHOULD HAVE told the mother about the procedure before hand.

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Bikkiboo
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:50pm
I got lots of cavities until I was 15 years old and fluoride was invented. My dentist treated me with that then (it tasted awful) and has ever since. I have not had a single cavity since then, and I’m now 68 years old. I have had to have 2 root canals and filling replacements over the years. I just had bad teeth that fluoride helped. Neither of my kids has bad teeth. When pregnant with the first, I drank my city’s fluoridated water. With the second, we were on a well, and I took fluoride in pre-natal vitamins and throughout the pregnancy, so his teeth would be formed strong. Some people don’t like fluoride, but it sure made a difference in our family.

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sajack
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:41pm
Without knowing more information, you can’t automatically blame the mother. Here is a local story about pediatric dentists doing unnecessary dental work on children. http://www.woai.com/content/troubleshooters/story/Dental-Disasters-A-News-4-WOAI-Trouble-Shooters/NUrXOVkzfEyAqnUoYQe1zQ.cspx It made me furious when I first saw the story last year.

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lefty5005
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:40pm
“Axel” you can say that again but after reading your post I immediately thought of the Reverend Jackson trying to say that paragraph in a speech. It might have took all day.

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Moondogg
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 2:20pm
She’s a cute little girl, even with the silver teeth. It’s sad that she’s self conscious about her appearance, but I bet it will make pulling her teeth easy. She’ll be dying to rip them out when they’re loose.

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Fitzzz
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:50pm
I’M just curious,
Who paid the bill?
And where these baby teeth that will fall out, and grow back in ?

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Timmy_NorthWest
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:46pm
I have to agree with the greenroughneck. Heredity plays a lot here. I am 50 and am losing teeth, all healthy. Thanks to genetics I have major bone and gum tissue loss. It has caused me to have several teeth pulled. All healthy. They get absesses under the tooth and have to be pulled. Most folks don’t realize your genetics plays a big role in what kind of healthcare you will need as you age.

My Ancestor Said,”Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!”

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brigott
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:42pm
SO the mother is tired of hearing every day about how much the girl doesn’t like her teeth?

Maybe she should try being a PARENT!

It’s possibly a lack of parenting that allowed the girl to exercise such poor dental/oral hygiene that allowed her teeth to get so bad in the first place.

It is definitely a lack of parenting that allows a girl to go on and on and on, day after day after day, about how she “doesn’t like” something.

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...sam
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:26pm
That mom should be stoked …..her kid can now play in the next Bond movie….hey! dont forget to brush your teeth.

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Beachmastermax
Posted on January 17, 2013 at 1:21pm
Well, since the mom thought it was appropriate to go public, time for the a*al exam.

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