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Attachment Parenting
Upset About DS' Teeth
DS had his first appointment at the dentist today. We loved the dentist and the office was great. I was really nervous since DS front tooth had chipped and he had that mysterious pink mark on it. It ended up being even worse then I originally thought. He has pretty bad decay behind his front tooth and on his back molars. He's going to need crowns on the molars and the front tooth. I just feel like I totally failed him. He eats pretty healthy for a 2 year old I think; lots of fruit, rarely any sweets or juice. We try to brush his teeth as best we can, but he fights it every single time. I just don't know how this happened ;-(
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Re: Upset About DS' Teeth
I know exactly how you're feeling. DD has cavities on 2 of her front top teeth on both surfaces, front and back. I felt sooooo bad about this when I found out, I wanted to cry. I felt like I failed my child. We've always been really diligent about brushing, but somehow this got by us. She fights us with brushing and sometimes I even have to pin her down on the floor to get the job done. DH has really weak teeth so I think she got his teeth. She also eats fairly healthy, but we've cut out dried fruits like raisins because they really stick to teeth.
Where we live there is a program called "lift the lip" dedicated to preventing/ minimizing cavities in babies and children. We go once a month and have a fluoride varnish put on her teeth (which she is amazingly co-operative for). It doesn't reverse the damage, but it slows it drastically so that she is hopefully old enough not to need general anesthetic when they do need to fix her teeth. The dental nurse that does this told me that genetics is a big contributor. Once DD stops swallowing her toothpaste we have been advised to start giving a fluoride supplement as the water here does not have fluoride added. I guess some people need it and some don't.
You need to check out this yahoo group:
https://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/veryyoungkidsteeth/
If you look through the archives there is a gold mine of info on young kids' teeth, including many from an awesome dentist who we were lucky enough to go see (Dr. Keith Hollander). He answers many questions posted on there. There are things you can do besides brushing to help heal your LO's teeth and gentler treatments that don't involve cutting the teeth or GA. As a bonus, there are a lot of AP-oriented parents in the group.
We were told DD would need 4 crowns and possibly baby root canals on her front teeth last winter and here we are, no need for dental surgery to date. The decay on her teeth is arrested and weak spots remineralized.
PM me if you want more info. This whole experience really rocked my world so I know how it feels and I've done tons of research.
For grownups, anyone can strengthen their teeth! For a long time I thought I was doomed with "weak" teeth but I didn't have adequate info on the whole caries disease process. I learned a lot from the book shown on this site: cleanwhiteteeth.com and I have hope now
Wish I had known all of this stuff sooner.
Don't blame yourself. I have very good dental hygiene. I floss and brush twice a day, every day. I am fanatical about brushing. I also happen to be the cavity queen
I have poor teeth I guess, because my dentist can tell I'm keeping them clean.