To be absolutely terrified

[loveyoutothemoonandback86]

My daughter has just turned 2 and the dentist have told me he has to have his top 4 teeth removed we are currently waiting an appointment. I'm absolutely terrified. I don't understand why but his teeth have been quite bad for a while even though I've Ben watching his diet and brush his teeth although he screams the house down. I had 3 other children with the same diet but they have perfect teeth.
Anyway, I've been told they will do all 4 at the same tome
As they don't like putting kids that age under general anaesthetic more than once if that can help it.
Had anyone had a similar experience? Any advice ? I feel so guilty and I'm so worried and the thought of him
Not having those teeth until he's around 6 upsets me so much .
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks

That must be awful for you both I'm so sorry.

My son is 40 and does not have a single filling. He ate sweets, drank coke (as an adult) and god knows what all his life and it never seems to affect his teeth or make him put on weight.

I think it sounds liek it's just bad luck. Some people have stronger teeth than others.

My ds had an accident at 18months and broke all his front teeth when with his dad...
I was devastated... He was in so much pain we wouldn't get him to eat or drink.. But within minutes of awaking up from the anaesthetic he was laughing and eating toast for the nurse.. A little bit wary of eating for a few days after... Think he expected it to hurt.. But then completely back to normal... And whilst I still get a bit sad about it... It really doesn't affect him in any bad way.

Omg my DD has yet to see a Dentist and she's nearly 5??? I thought it was 7 years old that they start seeing Dentists???

Jesus Christ I feel like the worst Mum in the world now..... I'm so careful & observant about everything with her. Don't know how the f I've let this happen I really don't.... I truly thought it was Age 7 🤦🏼‍♀️😢

What? It’s as soon as they have teeth. Toddlers go to the dentist.

I don't know about the procedure or recovery, but two children I know have had this done for different reasons (one an enamel deficiency they think caused by being coeliac or it can be antibiotics used in pregnancy and it can also just be generic) and one because of an accident. Both kids looked very cute with their gaps tbh, some children lose their front teeth at 4 anyway and certainly by 5, just makes them look a little older. I'm surprised the dentist gave no speculation on cause.

This isn't directed at the OP, but a general pondering on the subject...

I've wondered about the impact on teeth when I see babies and toddlers sucking fruit puree directly out of those pouches, which seems to be really really common nowadays. They're marketed as healthy baby food but they're probably not if not part of a meal and if delivered directly from pouch to mouth.

Op I’m so sorry the guilt is bloody awful. Mine had to have a filling, I felt awful. I’ve never been that strict with sweets as they genuinely aren’t bothered by them. But it still feels awful even when your doing all you should.

I look at kids diets now and they are so much better than the 70’s / 80’s diets I grew up with.
It has to be something else not the sweets, not the fizzy drinks.
I think there is something in the fruit / smoothie theory. But something is messing up kids enamels and quickly.

HappyLoneParent - do you go to the dentist yourself? I'm very surprised that they haven't mentioned your DC going too.

My DD had her first dental check during one of my appointments at around 9m. If they've got any teeth at all it's worth starting. It's as much about getting them used to the dentist at a young age as babies take things more in their stride than slightly older children.

Hopefully as long as your DD has been brushing well and doesn't eat too much sweet stuff, unless she has some of the conditions mentioned by others here it'll be ok but I would make an appointment as soon as possible.

Personally i found whenever my dc had any contact with anyone like a HV they would ask about being registered with a dentist. I find it shocking you have got to age 5 without knowing she needs to see one!

Ds bashed both his top front teeth in an accident when he was 1. We worried about how he would eat (fine apart from not being able to bite into apples and pears) and how he would learn to speak (fine but with a bit of a lisp). His adult teeth are now growing in ok so far and it's strange to see him with front teeth. His speech got a bit worse as he learned how to speak with teeth but he's fine again now.

The dental hospital were lovely. He didn't know a thing about it. Like someone else said, they will do their own assessment before removing any teeth so you will get a second opinion.

My OH is a dentist and is seeing a huge increase in the number of toddlers and young children with bad teeth due to breastfeeding after the age of 1. He says its particularly those who breastfeed to sleep as when they get to about 1, their teeth should be brushed last thing then nothing but water to drink til next morning.
disclaimer he's not a dad - has never had experience of babies and young children and has no idea about the whys and wherefores of breastfeeding!! When I told him that I had breastfed all my 3 until 9 months, 11 months and 13 months respectively and their teeth were fine, he just said "thank god you stopped when you did! No one realises how full of sugar breastmilk is"

That's interesting Blobby.

I BF DD until 23m and only managed to brush teeth after her bedtime feed about 50% of the time (we had good phases where this worked and then bad phases where brushing teeth seemed to disrupt her going to sleep.) Hopefully the fact that DD very rarely had overnight feeds from 9m onwards might be enough that her teeth weren't damaged. She has seen the dentist twice who didn't express any concerns about her teeth.

@Blobby10 Studies have actually shown that breastfed children are statistically less likely to develop tooth decay than those who aren't breastfed. If you think about it, It wouldn't make any sense from an evolutionary perspective for breastmilk to cause decay when children left to wean naturally will do so long after the age of one.

We see a specialist pediatric dentist who says that the idea that breastfeeding causes decay is an outdated one. Breastmilk in itself does not cause decay. It can react with food residue though which causes acid decay. So as long as babies teeth are properly cleaned after their last solid food, breastmilk on the teeth at night is fine. It also comes into very little contact with the teeth as it is drawn towards the back of the mouth.

Sorry for derailing the OP just wanted to put this out there because night feeds in breastfed babies are biologically normal and the world health organisation recommends breastfeeding to 2 years of age and beyond. I wouldn't want anyone to be scared to breast feed their one year old at night after reading your post.

It could be that your OH is seeing an increase in decay because there is a huge increase in the amount/ range of ready made baby food available a lot of which are high in sugar. As pp suggested, you regularly see babies sucking straight from these pouches which probably isn't something that happened 20 years ago.

@upthewolves I agree with you about evolution but also that the human diet has evolved so much I suspect that a mother's breast milk is highly likely to contain more sugar than it used to!! I have no knowledge either way and suspect that for every dentist, like my OH who says BF does cause decay, you will get one who says it doesn't (like yours!).

I'm just grateful that my babies are all grown up now and that when they were little, I didnt have so much conflicting information as modern day parents do. ., Yes there were always the grannies who advised dipping a dummy in honey to get baby to sleep (!) but parenting seemed so much less stressful in the olden days

@Blobby10 I do agree with you. I get really stressed out by the amount of conflicting information even by health professionals. I am always having to look up things afterwards to find actual research but then think... Surely all the professionals should be doing that! It's tough

I would guess enamel problem if you have other kids on same diet with no issues.
I knew someone who's child had no enamel and his teeth were like chalk.
Just crumbled. Adult teeth are fine though. Does he eat a lot of dairy? That's good for teeth and bones

@upthewolves
The key word is "extended" breastfeeding is linked to caries (defined as 24 months +) as per my earlier post on this thread. There's a 2017 British Dental Journal article on this topic:
www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2017.652

@Nemesia1264 thank you for that. I didn't actually see your earlier post sorry. I was referring to Blobby's earlier post in which she said her OH had linked breastfeeding beyond the age of 1 to caries.

Oh wow
Thank you for your responses, they've helped a lot. I'm definitely going to ask the specialist dentist at the hospital to give me an indication of whether this can be an enamel problem or something else.
I guess I'll just have to get use to the gap for a few years. I'm so glad everyone telling me the pain isn't bad after they wake up which was the main concern. The guilt is awful though. Thank you all really appreciate it x