to think this little girl badly needs to dental treatment. Should I say anything?

[ilovehugs]

A new family has moved in across the road. They have a little girl who my DD has made friends with. She is lovely. Bright, bubbly happy and healthy but has SEVERE tooth decay. My DD had tooth decay (now resolved for over two years) and sees a specialist dentist to give her teeth extra protection. As a result, I'm very clued up now on how painful and damaging, short and long term tooth decay of this level can be if left. All her teeth are badly decayed. She showed me her 'new tooth' today, which was her top front tooth emerging deformed with a black tip next to four black patches (teeth rotted away to nothing) flush with her gum. When she smiles, her bottom teeth are very obviously decayed also. Also her upper lip is constantly swollen from the infection. Her breath smells and I think it's probably because of the very severe decay. She is fiddling with her mouth all the time. The family is new to the UK and may not have had the knowledge of how to look after her teeth, they may not have had access to dentists. It really is very severe. I don't know if I should try and talk to the mum. I will probably really offend her. What should I do?

Dentists go into primary schools twice a year to do a check and apply a fluoride varnish

No they don't! My ds been to school for two full years and has never seen one - my own school has never had this either.

Ds has dreadful adult teeth because of all the medication he had when he was younger. Our dentist is private but treats children on the NHS. Never seen a dentist in school either at ds's nor when I was at school (many many years ago!)>

Ds has been checked at school, when we lived in London and then again when we moved to the Midlands.

Maybe it's something that has changed over the last 5 years?

I've taught for 20 years and never seen one in a primary school.

Well it does happen so I'd be interested to find out why it hasn't in schools you've been in.

After a quick google it seems some primary care trusts don't offer it - I always imagined it was standard. Seems the Tories are going to re introduce the scheme for every area - will be interesting to see if it actually happens

Thanks for this thread! I think Toothbeary might be getting a visit. DS has hypoplastic teeth (some have no enamel) and I've been trying to get my dentist to fissure seal them for ages.

So far we've lucked out - he's nearly 5 and so far no fillings, but those molars need to last till he's 12-ish so this could be a toothsaver!

Huge thanks ilovehugs

I haven't read the whole thread but would like to add the following -

Teeth with this appearance (worn flat, brown/dark stained, chipped/broken), may infact NOT be rotten or decayed, but be affected by the condition dentingenisis imperfecta.

One of my DC had a number of comments directed at him (and me!) by parents and teachers who who thought his teeth were rotting as they were not being cared for (they were).

The condition means teeth (especially the baby teeth) form with little or no enamel and wear away very fast, often flat to the gum by age 4 or 5 and causing pain to eat. And they stain really badly from colour in food. Adult teeth are usually affected too but not nearly so badly.

The condition is probably fairly common but rarely diagnosed - things are not always as they seem!

Dentinogenesis imperfecta affects roughly 1/6000 people. The worrying thing here is that the child is in pain. Whether the cause is poor diet/oral hygiene or something else, it needs to be looked at by a dentist. It's not about blame, it's about getting the child out of pain.

AKISS... DI is DIAGNOSED is 1/6000, not quite the same as saying it affects 1/6000 Many uncommon conditions exist in the population at much higher rates than the "official" rate. Often HCP are not looking for these type of conditions... "minor" conditions which can quite badly affect teeth, bones, muscle and other tissues might get a single mention at medical or dental school (specifically here I'm talking about collagen disorders, and there are many of them). I have medical and dental relatives. I also have a family full of people affected by a form of OI which includes DI as part of it's range problems... my DH has now started referring people he thinks have either condition to the relevant specialist, but guess what, nobody is really that interested! I find that sad really as there are preventative things, and lifestyle advice that could help with various problems collagen disorders cause .

Oh and of the nhs 5 dentists I've had, only the current one has mentioned my DI or my DS2's very obvious DI. Most of my relatives who have had it diagnosed have had to ASK for a diagnosis...