AIBU to NOT have DSs baby teeth replaced?

[justwondering72]

My youngest DS lost his two top front teeth at 18 months (long story, missing enamel, teeth wore away, became infected and had to be extracted). At the time we saw a paediatric dentist. She told us to bring him back once he turned 3 and gave us advice on keeping them as clean as possible etc. When we did take him back at just turned 3, she was very very keen to talk about replacing the teeth using a peadiatric bridge. i.e. false teeth at the front wired to his two back molars, this would stay in until his adult teeth made an appearance.

Her reasons for doing so were:

1. Aesthetics - and not being teased at school. I am really not bothered about how it looks, loads of children have missing teeth at just slightly older.
2. Spacing for adult teeth - she has since confirmed that this will not be a problem; there is plenty of room.
3. Speech development - this could be an issue, but I have spoken with my mum who is a life-long primary teacher and she tells me that she does not see or hear anything in his speech that would cause concern AND if it was a concern in later life, it could be treated with speech therapy then
4. Eating - he eats pretty much everything just fine as far as I can see and is no messier than his 6 year-old brother!

I asked about this on the General Health thread a while ago, and the response there was pretty uniformly, don't do it. I am asking again here and now because we have just been back to the dentist and she is still pushing us to agree to it. I think I need an AIBU jury behind me to help me stand up to her! We are not in the UK - we're in France, which probably accounts for the dentist's concerns about aesthetics and table manners (!).

But if it was your child... AIBU to not have his teeth replaced?

I would only do it if it were a spacing issue (ds's dentist v keen for him to keep a capped molar for this reason but different age/location). As it's not then I wouldn't bother.

I'd worry about choking and other teeth being damaged due to food getting trapped in the wires/difficulty cleaning them. They may also be non issues, but the aesthetics certainly wouldn't bother me.

Personally I would not bother with replacing milk teeth , certainly if he is not bothered either. If the dentist has confirmed the adult teeth will come down ok, then I can't see the point in the extra hassle for such a small child.

I would certainly want to ask the dentist the following questions:

1. If his back teeth are baby teeth? If so what happens when they fall out?

If his back teeth are adult teeth then:

1. Could wiring the bridge to the back teeth cause any kind of wear and tear to them

1. If the bridge doesn't come out, how much harder will it be to clean the back teeth, thereby risking damage to them?

If the bridge is removable I would be asking yourself how likely a three year old is to keep it in his mouth and not take it out/play with it break it etc.

I lost my front teeth as a toddler because of an accident. I didn't have speech issues and adult teeth came through fine but I do remember starting primary and not liking that I didn't have front teeth. I hated having my photo taken or being asked to smile. It doesn't bother me now but it did at the time. That said, I was a shy kid so your DC may not give it a second thought if you choose to not have them replaced.

I personally wouldn't- my niece lost 4 top front teeth at around the same age due to an accident. She managed fine, though she did look vaguely vampirish! (As the first teeth you saw were her canines) She did lisp but lots of small children do so it might not have been the missing teeth causing it. None of her other teeth moved into the gap, so she had plenty of space for her adult teeth when they came through. And eating wasn't a problem either- she got used to having to bite at the side of her mouth and could even manage things like apples like that.

I'd be inclined to have it done tbh, but I'd want to have as much information about the procedure as possible. The eating thing is of huge concern - my two found it very difficult to eat certain foods when they lost their front baby teeth and I would be worried that restricting his diet for up to five years could have serious effects - neither got their adult teeth through til gone 7yo.

How would you know when to have them removed ready for the adult teeth to come down? How permanent are they, would they have to be rewired at some point? etc etc. These are all questions I'd want answers to before going ahead.

To answer some of the questions...

It would be permanent and not removable by him.

His back molars are not is good shape (all his teeth have the same lack of enamel on them as the front ones had, though they were the worst) and I agree that I can't see how it woudl help them to have wires wrapped round them and the difficulty in keeping them clean.

Eating is really not a problem, I've never restricted his diet because of it and he munches his way through pretty much everything including apples, gnawing chicken off the bone and munching through crusty french bread!

Thanks for the feedback, it's hard going against the 'done thing' when living abroad sometimes, especially when it's a child's welfare being questioned.

I wouldn't bother and I'm a dentist but to answer one of the questions above the wire would be attached to baby molars which would fall out at around 11 or 12, the adult front teeth will be coming through at around 6 so there would be no problems about the back teeth falling out before the adult teeth are through. I don't think it would be fixed in but am not sure as we don't tend to do this procedure here in the UK.

sorry x-post
Still wouldn't bother

My DS had one of his front teeth removed after an accident.

He was 3 at the time so a little older, meaning he was already talking well. He lisps a lot now, and tends to be very drooly. He has had a year of nursery without the tooth, and none of the other kids notice. If they do, they just accept it because he's had no comments. We haven't been offered any treatment to fill the gap, but if we were we wouldn't do it.