4 year old with tooth decay - gutted!

[unclehairysgirlfriend]

Our dentist found some tooth decay on one of my 4 year olds teeth today. I am so upset - we are so careful with brushing. Of course he has sweets and juice now and again but nothing excessive. The dentist is going to coat the teeth and keep a close eye on things and thinks juice is the culprit so none from now on except occasionally at meal times.
Has anyone else had this? I feel like the worst mum ever!

[FuckityFuckFuck]

Try not to feel bad.

Keep up with the brushing etc but at the end of the day, some people have worse teeth than others. It is not necessarily a bad reflection on your parenting.

[Actuallylookingok]

Both mine had really noticeable decay and I was ott mother, breastfeeding, limiting sweets, ketchup, juice etc etc. Just weak enamel unfortunately, but the second teeth came through absolutely fine. Strange huh. One of those things.

[dikkertjedap]

You can't win really - fruit is healthy but bad for teeth (not just fruit juice!)

Best is to limit the times that the teeth are being attacked to give them time to restore themselves. So rather than continuous snacking, limit it to a set number, e.g. 4 or 5 times a day (this includes main meals).

Ideally let them eat sweets and fruit first and finish with a piece of cheese to neutralise acids. This is hard at schools, where staff generally insist on sandwiches and cheese first and fruit/sweet last.

If you can't give cheese to neutralise acids then let them rinse mouth with water after snack/meals.

Encourage drinking of water rather than fruit juice. If you do give fruit juice then give it with the main meals as it will do less damage to the teeth.

Never brush teeth within 15 minutes of having finished eating as the enamel will be weak and may be brushed away doing real harm. Either wait for 15 minutes or rinse mouth with water or Colgate FluoriGuard (only for 6 plus year olds) or something recommended by the dentist.

[unclehairysgirlfriend]

Thank you all for the advice and reassurance, feel a lot better about it now the shock has worn off! Have an appointment with the dental nurse in a couple of weeks so will see what advice they have for me.

[Goodbyetonsils]

You sound like me 2 months ago when the dentist told me my 4 y/o ds had tooth decay- I was completely mortified! But he assured me it's weak enamel. We were advised to go back in 8 weeks (last week) to see if he needed a "filling"- he did! They simply put some special paste on. Try not to feel too bad, once the shock wears off you will feel better.