My 9 year old had three cavities filled over two visits. First time they used nitrous, which was fine but he said later that he didn’t like the feeling. So the second time they didn’t use anything. He said he didn’t feel anything. But he also is really good at staying still when asked. Not sure how that would work with a 5 year old.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you all! To the dentist PP, would you fill your child’s tooth at 5? And to all, is novocaine better or worse for filings than nitrous? Once you started using nitrous, did your child require it for future visits?

It depends on which tooth, and how big the cavity is. I am very conservative, and take a watch and wait approach most of the time, whenever possible. I’d need more information before I could comment on your kids situation, unfortunately.
I never needed to use nitrous with my kids. Just lidocaine. The lidocaine is the local anesthetic, and the nitrous just makes you not care about what’s happening. You wouldn’t use nitrous without the anesthetic, but can definitely use lidocaine without nitrous.