Advice needed, DD needs 5 teeth extracted, dentist says breastfeeding to blame

[Bibulus]

Well, strictly speaking, she said I had bfed too long (2.5yrs, hardly that long imo but there we are)

Poor DD (5yrs) has an abscess in her front tooth and a further three top front teeth are decayed and need to come out under GA, and a molar as well.

At first the dentist was adamant that she must have been bottlefed juice to go to sleep, as that was what the pattern of decay suggested, and she took some convincing when we told her that DD had never had a bottle.

However when we told her that I used to bf her to sleep, she seized on that as the problem.

Am 35wks pg with dc2 and am totally confused. How on earth am I supposed to avoid tooth decay? The dentist said that as soon as her teeth had come through, what I I should have been doing is taking her off the breast before she fell asleep, cleaning her teeth (which presumably would have the effect of waking her right up again), and then getting her off to sleep by rocking etc.

Has anyone else managed to do this? it sounds totaly impossible to me with an older baby or toddler

Can't believe my poor DD has to have a general anaesthetic. just feel so guilty :(

SofiaAmes, out of interest, what level of fluoride is in children's toothpaste in the us? How Is different to adult paste? Is the adult paste a higher concentration again? Could you have just given your children a uk adult paste rather than importing?
In the uk in the last couple of years toothpaste manufacturers have started to address the low level of F in children's paste. Most now have a minimum of 1000ppm. If you don't live in a fluoridated area, ie 90% of us, just brush your kids teeth with a family fluoride toothpaste (1350 - 1500ppm) from the day they appear.

Dd had to have dental work on her front to and bottom teeth when she was 3 on Harley street privately as if we'd waited for nhs her adult teeth may have been damaged. Normal dentists kept 5elling us she was grinding her teeth but we knew she wasn't. We were told by the specialist it was due to bm and I felt awful as fed her till 3. She is now 8 and recently diagnosed with gastro oesophogal reflux disease which she's had all her life andbeen told by her gastro that this caused her earlier teeth damage not bm. Her adult teeth are now getting some damage from reflux so she gets her teeth painted every 3 months with fluoride and yses high fluoride paste.
Ds was fed till 4 and had no dental issues.

thedentist....here in the USA, adult toothpaste is sodium fluoride .243%. Children's toothpaste is 1000ppm. I am not quite sure how to convert from one to the other and if in fact they are the same. When my dc's were little (10 years ago), the only children's toothpaste I could find in the UK had 250ppm or something in that range. I am not sure what the adult toothpastes had at that time, but in general they are too minty/spicy for a young child's palate. Although now, at age 9 and 11 my dc's now use an adult toothpaste.

In addition, going back to some other comments...it is also important to bring your dc's to the dentist regularly as soon as they start having teeth. And do not give them juice to drink on a regular basis either from a bottle or a sipee cup. And of course, a healthy diet and limited sweets.

I've read that Flouride can cause the thyroid to malfunction ,I think thats more the issue with it, particularly in children.I do use flouride toothpaste but I would be cautious about high levels.

My Ds hsd flouridosis and all his back adult teeth came through bad