DD aged 10 needs root canal

Paediatric and Adult dentistry are different disciplines. What may be indicated in adult treatment is not necessarily appropriate in paediatric dentistry. Growth and development play a huge part in Paediatric dental planning whereas they play no part at all in Adult treatment planning. Therefore an adult commenting on their lived experience of a RCT is total irrelevant to OP’s 10 year old daughter. Posters who described their children’s experiences specifically aged 10 (maybe 11 at an absolute push ) and younger, are relevant. Adult /teen posters’ experience of molar endo are of zero use to OP.

You are just blaming your mil but you need to take some responsibility she obviously is not brushing properly after eating the sweets get her an electric toothbrush and the purple dye stuff that shows plaque and mouthwash so this doesn't happen again and check her teeth after she has brushed them

Oops, someone else replied to my initial post about 'op are you sure that the molar(s) aren't hypoplastic?' and I thought it was the op 😆 my bad!

I’m so glad you have said what you said about extractions in a paediatric service and sedation/ GA with local. Local alone in my 11 year old was awful.

Why are you telling everyone their experience is irrelevant? OP has asked for others experience to be able to make an informed decision.

Twice a day is plenty, anymore and you risk rubbing your tooth enamel off. The occasional three times is fine but not every day.

A girl I used to go to school with used to brush three times a day, ended up with terrible dental issues from over brushing.

You’re 10 are you ? 10 and facing molar endo? I don’t think so and therefore your experience is non-comparable.

Because she is 13 fgs. Completely different scenario to a 10 year old with a long term compromised 6.
Your high-tech GDP practice is irrelevant and something of a humble-brag.

I would definitely make sure your mother in law goes to the dentist appointment with you and your daughter. She needs to see what her granddaughter is going to have to go through because of her plying her with crap. And then supervised contact afterwards.

Ok I was just trying to reassure OP that this needn’t mean it will fail.

I have a small jaw and had 4 teeth out from my lower jaw as orthodontic surgery and still have a hugely crowded mouth; it wasn’t like a crocodile opening up…

I would also say it happened to me due to a period of chaotic upbringing and homelessness for our family, I have had no fillings in adulthood as it’s really brought home the importance of oral hygiene.

Your going to have to have a serious talk with your husband and tell him his mother is destroying his daughters teeth he either protects his daughter or you will and it won't be pretty .

My DD is 13 and has just had to have root canal in her adult molar. She didn’t find it painful at all just a bit uncomfy. She now has it filled but will need a crown eventually. Extraction was never on the table.
For reference the dental practice we are with are quite hitech and all for the most up to date treatments so I’m confident in what they are doing.

My 13yr old had an adult molar removed last year under general anaesthetic because of a massive hole. Go for the root canal if you can.

I totally understand how you feel about your MIL I’m afraid you are going to have to stand up to her. Her behaviour is toxic, she has ignored your request not to feed your child so much sugar, that alone is a red flag. It’s incredibly unhealthy for a child to consume that much sugar and is setting them up for a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits and food cravings. What I think she gets from it is power and control. It’s unreasonable to put the responsibility of standing up to her onto your child. You are the parent, you must do it. If you are too afraid of the repercussions then you should seek help from your GP and social services.

I have had several root canals. The bit about it being no worse than a filling and being a longer more boring process is true.

You were 15. The OP daughter is 10. You’d missed your window of opportunity at 15. An extraction of a 6 at 15 is going to leave spacing. An extraction of a 6 in a 10 year old is totally different scenario and can lead to quite a good closed space result. A 15 year old versus a 10year old having molar endo; no comparison in cooperation levels. No comparison at all.
Let me tell you those 10year olds who can tolerate molar endo with a rubber dam posteriorly clamped onto their tooth are FEW and FAR-between.

Mind, there are some very naive inexperienced general dentists who try to refer kids for this, asking for molar endo under Inhalation sedation 😱🤦‍♀️. Maddening. How they think this can be done with a rubber dam on, working posteriorly and with a nasal sedation mask on , bending yourself into a pipe cleaner shape to see, and then actually managing the anxious kid underneath it all, god only knows. Safe to say, it will nearly always be getting extracted in paediatric specialist services with / without GA or Inhalation Sedation & local anaesthetic.

Not sure your MIL can be blamed for this. I almost exclusively drank fizzy drinks as a child but brushed my teeth - only filings I’ve got were ones i earnt as an adult when my mother wasn’t standing over me. (And handing out disclosing tablets once a month)

Adult teeth come through at 6 years old. Therefore it won’t be the MIL feeding sugar daily for first five years that’s the issue. Also seeing once a week with sweets/fizzy drinks again wouldn’t be enough to cause such bad decay in a tooth to result in maybe needing a root canal. I do think you need to look at what you feed her and what she has in school. Genuinely be honest - does she have fruit juices/squash/sugary drinks/regular snacking of sweet stuff? Does she use an adult toothpaste and brush twice a day? Do you get her regular dental check ups? A large cavity like this should have been picked up a bit earlier.

I agree though probably better to extract and allow the other permanent molar to fill in the gap. Discuss with your dentist.

Anyone who screamed in my face and didn’t follow basic requests wouldn’t be seeing my kids again. And if my DH didn’t support me, he wouldn’t be living with us either.

My suggestion would be that your DH absolutely has to come to the dentist with you and listen to what the dentist says. Maybe even try to have a chat with the dentist beforehand too, explain what’s happening and tell him to go in hard with your DH and DD. I’ve heard dentists in a hospital setting be quite brutal with parents.

I also think you need to lay the law down with your DD and tell her that if she eats and drinks all this sugar she’ll have no teeth by the time she’s 20 and she’ll be in a lot of pain for the next few years. She’s old enough now to take some responsibility. If she does see your MIL make her practise saying “No gran, I am cutting down on sugar because I’ve lost a tooth already.” And tell her to be firm. If your MIL doesn’t listen then she needs to stop seeing her for a time. Trust your instincts, you knew this was wrong but now because of your MIL (most likely) your DD has lost a tooth she’s never getting back.

This happened to my son at 11. I felt like the worst parent so please let’s stop jumping on the OP as she will be beating herself up more than anyone else. he has hypoplastic molars.
Due to covid he had not seen a dentist. He didn’t eat crazy amounts of sugary things/ fizzy drinks and cleaned his teeth well.

We had advice from a root canal specialist and orthodentist . The advice was that a RC would last at most 10 years and be difficult for a child to tolerate.
He had a small jaw and a wisdom
tooth sitting ready on the xray to descend into the gap that would otherwise have crowded the jaw.
So we went for extraction. He now has no gap at all and won’t need a wisdom tooth extraction in the future .
BUT
extraction under LA was awful even by a very skilled and kind dentist. It took 3 local top ups and multiple pulls. I would see if you can find somewhere that does sedation if you choose this option.

No the OP never said the molars were hypo plastic

It’s a bit more than a few sweets … who gives a child spoonfuls of sugar?!?!? The women is a psycho!

And you’ve let this go on for 10 years?!?! It’s abuse … leave!!

Yes and on a front tooth that’s absolutely correct. 6s totally different

So our dentist had words with my youngest DD who has a chewy sweet addiction amongst other things. She needed 3 fillings in a short space of time. However the dentist told me that even though she was 11 at the time I think, I should be supervising and even doing the brushing and no relying on her to do it. Electronic ones definitely better. Flossing and mouthwash.

However it’s not just sweets. Fruit can have the same effect if brushing isn’t good enough. I recall seeing a tv doc on poor mouth hygiene in kids and a miter was gobsmacked that her child had to have quite a lot of teeth extracted due to decay because she didn’t let them have sweets. But they did eat a lot of fruit and grazed through the day.

Dentist said if they want sweets given at a meal time rather than as a separate snack between meals. Milk or water to drink.