Dental work and injections

[formallyknownasloveydarling]

I need some dental work done. As I am a nervous patient I absolutely can not go without an injection. I know that sounds selfish
My dentist has advised me to not feed the day of the injections. I have a Ds, 17 months who is only fed at bedtime. He's never had a bottle, I gave away my breastpump. What should I do?

[leedy]

He may well be willing to skip his bedtime feed just the once if someone else does a nice distracting bedtime - I know by that age I was occasionally having Daddy do bedtime while I went to band practice after work. You may need to hand express for comfort, though.

Also do check with one of the authorities like the Breastfeeding Network about the safety of the drug, especially for an older, larger baby - it may be that you don't need to miss the feed at all because so little will go into your milk relative to his size, or because it'll be so long after you take it, eg if you have the procedure done in the morning. A lot of medical professionals are really overcautious about drugs and BF, sometimes unnecessarily so.

[formallyknownasloveydarling]

Oh thank you so much for replying. Ds is enormous so I guess his body can deal with it better (is that how it works?)! But the dentist did advise me not to feed. He said the drug companies say its fine but don't believe them!!! Not being a medical professional, I have no idea who to believe! Will it affect my supply?

[leedy]

At 17 months your supply should be absolutely fine if you do miss the feed - it really takes ages for it to drop once it's that established.

Though it does sound like your dentist is being madly overcautious, if (as he says) the drug companies say it's fine it almost certainly is: they're more likely to say it isn't if there's any risk at all to avoid being sued, a lot of basically BF safe drugs say to avoid them in lactation on the patient information leaflet. Do you know the name of the medication?

And yes, size is definitely a consideration, and number of feeds per day - for some drugs a dosage that would be dangerous in a tiny EBF newborn would make no difference at all to a hulking toddler who's mostly on solids.

[EauRouge]

What is the injection for? There are very few medications that absolutely cannot be taken when you are BF. I would ring the BFN drug helpline to talk things over.

[formallyknownasloveydarling]

It's only one of those numbing injections in my gum [shudder]

[Midori1999]

Is the injection an anaesthetic? Or a sedative?

I second to ring the BFN for advice, but they also have a PDF on their website about dental work, which suggests breastfeeding would be ok after anaesthetic or some sedation.

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/pdfs/Dental_Treatment_and_Breastfeeding_March_2009.pdf

[Midori1999]

I have breastfed DD after a root canal and an extraction (seperate occasions) and my dentist said it was fine to breastfeed, which I did. DD was under a year old both times and I had a shed load of anaesthetic as I an nervous and the dentist was cautious.

[EauRouge]

Oh, that's it?! I've had tons of fillings done since I've been breastfeeding (thank you, pregnancy, for ruining my teeth) and had injections every time. Not sure why your dentist thinks it's not safe Maybe get the exact name of the drug just in case.

[AKissIsNotAContract]

It's fine to breast feed after a dental injection.

[AKissIsNotAContract]

Sorry, posted too soon, If you are concerned then ask for the one with Felypressin instead of adrenaline (brand name usually Citanest).