Discoloured adult teeth

[mildgreenfairyliquid]

I know there are many people going through much worse, so I am sorry for moaning about this.

I'm feeling pretty devastated about DS's teeth (age 7). His two bottom ones came through looking OK, but his bottom six-year-old molars (the only other ones we can see yet) are discoloured. Yellowy-browny patches (with whiter bits). The dentist couldn't see any problem except discolouration (i.e., no decay/holes and he said the "fissures look fine", but said there was mottling of the enamel). The dentist didn't seem to know why it would be, but said it could sometimes be too much fluoride (we do live in a fluoridated water area, and use children's fluoride toothpaste, but he's never eaten a tube-full or anything).

Anyway, judging from the times that the enamel forms, it seems that DS's top front teeth may well also be affected (though his baby ones are still there at the moment). If this is the case, does he have to live with unpleasant-looking teeth till adulthood? Can they do anything for children? Has anyone else experienced this? Looking around today, all I can see is children with bright white perfect smiles!!

Many thanks for reading.

I have heard two different things.

One is that it's something that happens in the womb.The other is that it could be either too much or too little enamel.

Either way,I don't know what the solution is if it's very obvious and upsetting for the child.

Thanks for the post, VerySmall.
He didn't say that there looked anything wrong with the quantity of enamel (although how can they tell??). Just that it was discoloured.

No one can see the sixes anyway so as long as they're healthy, there's really nothing to worry about.

Dentists can tell bcse we look at enamel all day, every day. You could ask for a second opinion if you're not happy.

MrsMorton, thank you so much for your reassurance. I wasn't really doubting the ability of dentists, more marvelling at it (when I look at the teeth, I don't really know what I'm looking for). Appearance-wise, I suppose I'm just worried that the front teeth (which it seems get their enamel about the same time?) will be the same. If they are, is there anything that can be done?

Dd 9 has the same and at first i thought it was due to all her chemo meds (she has had two types of leukaemia since 2009) but her dentist says he sees it a lot in kids now and even his son has it and that it is due to too much flouride as our tap water is also flouridated. I think he said it can be cosmetically treated when they are a bit older. In the meantime we use flouride-free toothpaste.

Mrsmorton is it a fluoride thing then?

What can be done if it is front teeth and the discolouration is already there?

Would really appreciate your advice!

My brother had enamel hypoplasia on his 6s from measles but his incisors are fine.

It's impossible to say if it's fluoride without having a good look, it's not that common though to be honest so I would be very wary about using toothpaste without fluoride in, especially as the damage will already have been done once the child is 4+

If it is fluorosis then something called microbrasion is good. It's like exfoliating the tooth surface and I've had great results doing this, it's conservative so doesn't damage the teeth too much.

Yes, from the ops description it sounds like fluorosis. Microbrasion works very well on brown/orange spots and not so well on the white bits but bleaching can help to even that out. As your dentist about it.

When I used to treat children, we had this great microbrasion stuff, it was glittery purple paste love it!!

Thank you Mrsmorton