Anyone with experience of weak enamel/hypoplasia in babies able to give me some advice?

[Womnaleplus]

DS2 has this issue with his four top incisors. Four teeth on the bottom fine, no others have come through yet (he's under a year).

Dentist has asked me to go back in six month, if they deteriorate significantly or if new teeth coming through are similarly affected.

Can anyone advise how I should be brushing? One of his front teeth is particularly affected and you can see flakes of enamel detaching. I'm worried that brushing is actually speeding up the process.

Also, should I be asking GP/HV etc to put this on their records? I don't want anyone thinking I'm neglecting his teeth - it looks pretty bad :(

call the dentist and ask.
my dd had molars affected and had them removed at age eight. other dd had two teeth capped at two years old. also both had coatings put on. but you need to ask dentist about brushing etc and what dentist advises.

I second talking to the dentist. DS has/had this and has had 2 teeth removed, and others treated.

DS2 has this due to prematurity. It is his top 4 teeth mainly. He is 4.5 and has regular check ups at the dentist who has adopted a wait and see approach. I just brush as normal. Did the dentist say whether he/she thought his adult teeth would be affected?

I know what you mean about not wanting people thinking his teeth have been neglected. I don't care what random people think, but when he started nursery I did explain to them that he has weak enamel.

Ds (3.6) has a genetic condition and has hypoplastic teeth and nails. he has no enamel at all on his back molars. Unfortunately he also gets acid reflux and has had many courses of antibiotics for chest problems - basically everything is against his teeth!

he hates having his teeth brushed (sensory issues) but using one of these brushes helps. He sees a sn dentist, who recommended as little sugar possible, straws and open cups for drinks and brushing with the above brush, with a toothpaste with a high enough amount of fluoride.

Unfortunately he has to have his 4 back molars removed in March.

Thanks all. The dentist said to brush as normal, but every few days since a new, visible (2-3mm) section of enamel has flaked off the worst tooth, hence my worry. Think I will try to take him back in.

We don't know what the cause is (he wasn't prem) so she couldn't say whether his adult teeth will be affected or not. I'm hopeful that at his bottom teeth seem fine, it might just be isolated to the top four.

I have visions of him needing all four removed at a young age and needing to wait until seven or so to have any front teeth!

My son had (has) this, triggered by very high fever and strong antibiotics when he was 5 weeks old.

The NHS dental service wanted to remove 2 back teeth when he was only 3 years old and leave the others until they decayed so badly that they caused him pain, at which point they would be removed too.

That would have led to massive issues with spacing for adult teeth, as removing the milk teeth at such an early age would likely have meant that the gaps closed up.

We took him to a specialist pediatric private dentist instead, who applied 2 crowns to the worst affected teeth and did root-canal type fillings to the others. This was under light sedation, so my son remembers nothing of it except bright lights and it took only about half an hour.

The whole lot cost over £900 so most definitely not cheap. But the crowns last until he was 7, so we bought him 4 extra years of keeping his milk teeth. The gaps have been maintained and X rays show that the adult teeth are well placed to come through absolutely normally.

So, as with everything, I guess the message is to question, do your own research, and question some more.

Thanks jgj, that is all new to me. Hmm. How did you find a paediatric dentist?

That is interesting, jgjgjg. We are meeting with ds's surgeon in Feb, I will ask him about the adult teeth spacing, they have no idea whether ds's adult teeth will come in with the same problem, but he will need them capped if they do.

we were referred by our dentist to a specialist dentist.(NHS)

ds has bad enamel on his first adult molars that came through at age 5. His dentist prescribed high fluoride toothpaste to be used instead of normal adult fluoride level toothpaste

Just had a google of private paediatric dentists in London and the top result was for a surgery that listed 'on-demand Breastfeeding' as one of the two cause of dental decay in babies. Given that that's total horseshit, I shall not be going there.

Am I allowed to give the name here? We use Toothbeary in Richmond.

DS3 is 23 months, he has this. he is starting to have the enamel coat on his teeth from next month just praying its enough, we didn't realise in time with DD aged 5 that she had problems and her top teeth are all decayed now, just delaying having them removed as she's not in pain with them but I feel awful when anybody mentions her teeth

On a positive note Ds1 whos 10 had this and had slight issues with decay & enamel on his and his adult teeth are perfect.

All 3 of mine are due to crap genetics & lack of nutrients during pregnancy (severe hyperemesis).

jgjgjg, I called our dentist to ask about the gapping issue, when ds has his teeth out, and she said they would probably put in a sort of 'retainer' next to the remaining teeth, to prevent this. Unfortunately his back molars ae beyond saving.

What's the enamel coat, Nobloodymore? Do they paint it on?

DS2 keeps getting bits of fluff trapped in the bit of enamel that's currently falling off the worst tooth and it looks awful. It's black so it looks like decay when he grins (which he does a lot, wonderful boy that he is).

dd1 has her teeth painted - it is like a fluoride seal, the dentist paints fruity flavoured stuff on, and the it is zapped with a laser light to dry and harden it.

With ds they think they will have to be permanent seals (like a shell) because he will have to have a general anaesthetic for the treatment.

Yeah he's not had it yet he has his first one in Feb, the dentist said it's just like painting nail varnish on, like a protective coat on his teeth. He'll have to have it every 3 months.

Did they say if there's a minimum age for having it done? Or is it just done once the teeth have deteriorated to a certain point?

And how on earth are they going to get a 23 month old to sit still for that long?! :o

They said it's usually 3 but he's having it at 2.

Can't even begin to imagine how they're going to get him to sit still, just hoping they can!

My dd2 has poor enamel on her back molars (we've managed to keep them though and she's just turned 10!) as they broke through around the time she developed Perthes Disease, a degenerative bone condition in her hip. It affected her teeth too, but as her hip is now perfectly healthy (though a bit of an unusual shape) her daily molars should be ok.

She's currently having a preventer brace installed to stop her thumb sucking which is a much bigger problem!

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