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Dental Trauma and "Adjustment Disorder"

NAS83709

Anyone with experience of recovery from dental extractions and general anaesthetic in adults??

We have a 31yr old severely autistic son who has refused dental treatment for years despite 50 hours+ of "desensitisation" from our local psychologist team and multiple attempts to cajole/persuade him to enter the hospital supported by our "multi-disciplinary team" over the past 7 years.

We finally (after presenting him as an emergency 12 months ago) have a date booked for "the procedure".

"The procedure" involves pre-med in the home environment supervised by an anaesthetist, car trip to hospital, at least 6 tooth extractions including 4 wisdom teeth, a trip to the recovery ward and a blue-light ambulance trip home followed by some form of short-term monitoring/nursing care.

All of this has to be done without giving "the patient" any advance warning and so is being "bought off" by the Court of Protection.

We are , of course, expecting severe recovery problems, his reaction is likely to be extreme but he desperately needs the treatment.

Does anyone out there have experience of handling a case like this? What strategies should we use? What help should we expect from NHS and Social services? etc ?

Thanks for any helpful suggestions.

PT and AT

Parents

  • I would echo some of the comments already made and agree that he may never trust you again. Also there is a real possibility that he will feel unsafe in his own home, the one place where he should feel safe. How is he supposed to know that it is not going to happen again without warning. How can he be expected to trust any future visitors to the house, when they might be another anaesthetist.

    Does the multi-disciplinary team have an autism trained specialist? The amount of 'desensitisation' he has been put through seems unnecessarily cruel and will likely have made the situation worse. 

    The amount of trauma and shock from not knowing in advance is unimaginable. If the procedure has to go ahead I would urge you to explain what is to happen and try to help him prepare for it. 

Reply

  • I would echo some of the comments already made and agree that he may never trust you again. Also there is a real possibility that he will feel unsafe in his own home, the one place where he should feel safe. How is he supposed to know that it is not going to happen again without warning. How can he be expected to trust any future visitors to the house, when they might be another anaesthetist.

    Does the multi-disciplinary team have an autism trained specialist? The amount of 'desensitisation' he has been put through seems unnecessarily cruel and will likely have made the situation worse. 

    The amount of trauma and shock from not knowing in advance is unimaginable. If the procedure has to go ahead I would urge you to explain what is to happen and try to help him prepare for it. 

Children