Question: Severe needle phobia--needing dental work

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone:

My 15yo dd with OCD has a severe needle phobia, and needs some dental work done

(extraction of a baby molar and filling an adult molar, top left and right).

She doesn't like the needle, to start with, and doesn't like not being able to

feel part of her body. We had tried Emla cream once for a blood test and it

freaked her out when she couldn't feel her skin when I poked it with a drinking

straw to assure her she wouldn't feel the needle. She'll need something to deal

with the " frozen mouth " after the procedures. Not sure whether to get them done

separately or together, having her whole upper mouth frozen.

My question is about conscious sedation for dental work. I'm trying to decide

between:

1) nitrous oxide (laughing gas)

2) oral medication (diazepam usually), given 30 minutes before

3) IV sedative (deeper sedation, but they need to put that needle in first

4) general anesthetic (using a hammer to kill a mosquito).

I'm wondering about anyone else's experiences with OCD kids with extreme anxiety

and needle phobia, what to use to get through this. The longer we leave the

filling and the baby tooth extraction, the worse things will get. The various

dentists we've consulted don't have much experience with kids with OCD and

extreme anxiety/needle phobia, so I'm hoping someone here can give me some

advice, on or off list.

Thank you. Theresa