AIBU to feel cheated about DD's teeth? (Pic included)

[Notplannedforthis]

DD9 has come home from school upset that another DC has been making remarks about her "rotten teeth".

DD has yellow/brown discoloration on her front teeth and I can't fathom why.

She doesn't like sweets or fruit, never drinks fruit juice or pop, didn't have a dummy, didn't have bottles, eats a mostly healthy diet, had fluoride treatments and regular dentist appointments up until the pandemic, we brush her teeth twice a day in quadrants using an electric tooth brush.

We've tried so hard to keep her teeth healthy. AIBU to be annoyed that despite this, DD is still having to put up with comments about her teeth? Why on earth are they brown?

Does she have an electric toothbrush

She does have an electric toothbrush. We also use the little purple tablets that you chew once a week that show up anything that's been missed in brushing.

Wow SpongeBob. Your teeth look like they belong to a tooth model in a toothpaste advert!

@Luckymummytoone my DS had enamel hypoplasia diagnosed on 2 front adult teeth, please don’t think there isn’t anything they can do, there is, my DS has composite veneers, this is basically like a white filling painted over the top of the teeth, it’s completely painless and takes about 15 mins, he had his done on NHS 4 years ago, but privately I think each tooth is about £150, it doesn’t last for ever and will need redoing in next couple of years. Our dentist only offered to refer us when I mentioned DS had lost all conference in smiling, he was getting teased for ‘dirty teeth’. I have before and after pics I can PM you if you like .

@Bobbobbo

I'm a hygienist and to me that just looks like staining that will come off with a polish at the dentist. Can't say for definite what has caused it and I don't want to say 100% it'll come off but looking at the picture I'm pretty sure it will.

Agree that it looks like staining that could be removed from Dentist/Hygienist

My youngest DD has this but on her back teeth. The dentist says it is caused by illness during pregnancy and isn't to do with decay. The teeth are like this as they are already in the gum before the baby is born. My DD has lost one of her back teeth and it has come in normal. I was quite ill with her when I was pregnant so it was probably caused by that.

My dc has discoloration on their teeth, no idea why, dentist says probably due to something that happened in pregnancy, I didn't take any antibiotics but was sick as a dog! Dentist said to us it can be fixed when she's older.

@LibrariesGiveUsPower45321

Did you have chickenpox or other virus whilst pregnant with her? I had a friend who had that and her daughter has similar.

Totally agree. Chickenpox whilst teeth are in the gums. Speak to your dentist.

Excess fluoride?

This looks what I sometimes have on the inside of my front teeth. Mine is just staining and I use a little buffer thing (not a sharp tool) to get rid of it and it comes off really easily. Maybe worth a go if you can't see a dentist yet?

@CurlyhairedAssassin your Ds is the one who should be cleaning his teeth properly. Most children don't need a scale and polish, only if there's calculus build up. Most likely he just doesn't need a clean

Evening staining doesn't technically need a scale but you would polish it off on a child

It could be inhalers OP or mouth breathing or certain spices. I wouldn't worry too much, its just staining and can be removed really easily.

@Woodpecker22 - not in all uk areas. We don’t have flouride in our water in our area.

@Fastforwardtospring aw yea please that would be great! Thank you! This is a relief to hear!
I’m going to go private once they’re fully through I think as when I’ve called the dentist they’ve told me they wouldn’t do anything 😬
Thanks again 🥰

@Fastforwardtospring yes not yea 🙈

@Notplannedforthis I'm not an expert but the formation of it looks like staining to me, like something the hygienist could get off. Please let us know how everything goes.

I have very stained teeth as an adult, but then I love coffee. Had no idea mouth breathing can cause it, or inhalers. Thanks for the tips everyone! Am going to get them bleached soon hopefully.

@CurlyhairedAssassin Yes they do vary in terms of how much stuff they do before they expect you to pay for the hygienist. I can see why 'cleaning'/scale and polish is treated as a separate task really, especially as they receive funding per task or something.

DS2 had something very like this a few years ago when about 8. You can see it quite clearly on photos of him then. Dentist referred him to dental hospital convinced it needed some investigation. Suggested some of the conditions previous posters have suggested. Hospital dentist took one look and took a few minutes to polish it off and said that dentist could easily have done it. DS went home with lovely teeth.

Hi notplannedforthis,
Can I ask for an update on you DD's teeth? My son has something similar only worse! Did you try the hygienist? Hope you got it sorted.

Does she have a spacer for her inhalers? I’d been using inhalers for years, have yellow teeth with some white patches (fluorosis - I grew up in an area where they added fluoride to the water!). No-one and ever told me using an inhaler without a spacer stains your teeth! I now have a spacer, I do my inhaler before I brush my teeth, I rinse then brush my teeth to minimise the yellowing but I’m considering getting them whitened now.

@Woodpecker22 I thought there was no flouride in UK's water?

It looks like surface staining to me too - if you can afford a hygenist get her teeth cleaned.

Two of my dc have a condition where the teeth grown with almost no enamel so the orange dentine is what you see mostly. Their teeth look very yellow and they are self conscious about it but it’s no ones fault, no antibiotics etc that’s just how they are. Hoping to have some cosmetic whitening done when funds allow. We were told though that the lack of enamel makes their teeth more vulnerable to decay and warned not to use an electric toothbrush.

Hope you get this fixed. It can be easily.

Plus please press on the 20 warts on her hands. That's not ok either. That can be sorted.

Please don't let either of these things go unaddressed. Don't be fobbed off. Be polite, but firm, insist they are addressed.

@anfieldgal

Haven't read all the thread so not sure if it was already mentioned, but I think what OP's child has is molar-incisor hypomineralisation, or MIH. It's very common. It often occurs when there was some trauma or illness at birth, or something like chicken pox etc. in the first year or so of life, but in many cases no cause can be found. Often the molars that come in when children are around 6 years old are the worst affected, with some children having molars that crumble almost as soon as they appear in the mouth, but it can affect the front teeth too. What are your child's permanent molars like?

My 7-year-old daughter has MIH, probably from catching HFMD at 16 months, which temporarily arrested her fingernail growth (they all fell off a few weeks later!) and most likely the development of her teeth as well. Luckily, hers is a very mild case, with three of four permanent molars only having slight chalky patches on the tips of the cheek sides of her teeth, so no stress-bearing areas. Her incisors so far are unaffected, except for one tiny opaque/white pinhead-sized patch on one of the top ones that nobody would ever really notice, and which I think looks quite cute. We have been incredibly lucky that it is so mild, but I have to admit I do get nervous every time a new tooth starts coming through.

Please see your dentist about this to either rule out or confirm MIH as if the molars are badly affected it is important to get them seen to.

HTH.

Take her to a dentist they can cover the front ones with amalgum.

I was always getting tonsillitis and sinusitis as a child and hence lots of antibiotics, until I had my tonsils and adenoids removed. Hence discoloured teeth.