enamel hypoplasia

[jimjam14]

i thought i would start a new thread regarding this condition. i have a 9 year old son who has this condition, and im still devastated after 2 years. we have had private treatment, reduced his sugar intake, yet his teeth are still decaying. he now has to have 4 teeth taken out in hope his new teeth wont be affected. we were told by my dentist we couldnt do anything about the appearence but we are having a filling over the front two teeth. i will let you know how we go. please share your stories. i would have loved to have had something like this when i first found out. i am also interested to find out why... i dont believe it is just one of them things. what do all our babies have in common. my ds had chicken pox at 5 months, he was put on soya milk as a baby, i took sanatogen vitamins in pregnancy. please share yours...maybe there is a link. i look forward to speaking with others x

Oh good I would try and get a referral to your paediatric dentist/hospital. I would not just wait (essentially what we have done in not knowing), as you can get sealants, extra fluoride etc. also referrals takes ages to come through, we waited almost 8 months for appointment, so rather get that moving now.

Glad to have found you all as well!

vuvuzela Thanks, that sounds like good advice. I will push for that.

God the guilt is horrendous but have been doing some reading and really it seems that we are NOT to blame. Even if the DC have had some sugar, should NOT result in massive decay.

Totally get what you were all saying about feeling shocked to get diagnosis and trying to keep it lighthearted for the DC. I know, also v grateful is not terrible fatal disease, but think we are allowed to feel shocked and sad for them, don't you?

Sorry, am not a facebooker, but will keep an eye on this thread. Will also come back and post some of the better research I have found.

I know oh good, I feel so bad! My DDcame home from school and apologised for having two raisins! Poor kid! She had heard me tell the dentist that I had given her loads of raisins as a toddler, amd only realised later how bad they were for teeth. But I know if she did not have this hypoplssia her teeth would be fine, perhaps a cavity along the way, but the "decay" is not in line with her pretty good diet etc/ oral care.

Does anyone know if drastically reducing sugar will help in the long Term?

Dd (10y) has this. Her milk teeth were fine but her adult teeth are badly affected - she has had about four fillings of her molars which she found very distressing. I feel so upset for her. Her teeth are yellowy, have a rough appearance and some white mottled patches.

I can't remember taking antibiotics while pregnant but she was premature. I had to have antibiotics post birth as I had an extremely high temp, and dd was tube fed colostrum and breast milk so I don't know if the abx filtered through to her.

She sees the dentist every three months; she is prescribed high fluoride toothpaste and mouthwash and has had sealant applied. We're also regulars at the dental hospital and orthodontics so they can monitor her teeth. I have to say, we've had fantastic treatment from the NHS.

Margot it's good to hear you have had such great care with the NHS.

Spanky not sure what the NHS says about implants for children, could you phone to ask?

On a more random note .....Has anyone tried sugar free sweets ..... I am trying to look for substitutes for treats etc. I was always against sweetners etc so wondering what they might have in, if a possible alternative to replace party bag sweets with?

Has anyone's DR spoken to them about diets and sugar? Will a low / sugar free diet help?

DD1 had this on 4 of her baby molars...she's had numerous fillings and has now lost one altogether. She's nearly 9. It seems the adult teeth coming in behind look good, so we're keeping our fingers crossed on that score...in the meantime our priority is trying to hang into these as long as possible. She's now under the care of a paediatric dental hospital (the referral only took about a month ) and is going to have the remaining 3 dodgy teeth capped with metal caps to protect them a bit longer. At our initial consultation the consultant also expressed concern about the four adjacent teeth which also look affected so I think she might also lose them earlier than we hoped Adult teeth are being sealed as they come through and we are hoping they are healthy.

No problems in pregnancy here, pg and birth completely straightforward. Our dentist says the problems occurred as the teeth were forming in the womb, but DD also had tons of antibiotics as a baby and that seems a big coincidence. Only drank milk or water until very recently (now sometimes has squash), does like sweets but we keep an eye on that. My other two children have perfectly healthy teeth, she's just been so unlucky.

My dentist said reducing sugar would help, but TBH she's being a bit of a patronising arse about it - getting us to fill out a diet sheet, etc, like we feed DD fruit juice all day long. Actually she didn't have sugar til she was 2 AT ALL and now I strictly limit it and make sure it's with meals, etc. I am not sure how far strictly eliminating it will help, but keen to hear more if anyone knows more?

www.nhs.uk/news/2011/10October/Pages/acidic-sweeteners-may-erode-teeth.aspx interesting research on "sugar free alternatives/substitutes" that may not be good for teeth .....

Placental insufficiency. Traumatic birth. Oxygen starvation at birth. Strong antibiotics as a neonate. Breast fed for 3 years which the arse of a dentist said caused the hypoplasia (opposite to what our own dentist said). Nearly all teeth removed at 2 but her new adult teeth (she is 6) look and are quite healthy so far. Average diet but only drinks water out of preference.

Rjae, how awful, your DD really went through it as a newborn. That is so promising about her new adult teeth. Touch wood they stay good.

Would be interesting to hear from anyone else whose DC had problems with milk teeth but adult teeth OK? My DD only 5, so too early to tell.

OhGood I am also interested to hear from those with DC's who had this on milk teeth, how it panned out with adult teeth, and perhaps any wisdom/advice to pass down to us.

Hi vuvuzela, was it you who invited me over? I don't want to get drawn into too much, previously I've been pestered, literally pestered by PM and called rude names when I said I was too busy to look at the research. But, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Re my brother who had measles and has hypo plastic molars, these were fissure sealed at an early age. As a family we never snacked though, really not ever. We were allowed a bar of chocolate (usually a whispa?) on a Friday for pudding but other than that, nothing. Although I have been a diet coke addict since I was about 12, there's no sugar in that and I'm mostly weaned now!!

I still don't snack now (and neither does he) we just eat huge meals that everyone is at.

Sealants and fluoride are excellent but the frequency of sugar is so incredibly important. Yes it's shit how if the teeth were normal then they'd get away with it but the fact is, they're not just like I am genetically not prone to getting sunburnt, my brother is (I got the best genes which is why I'm the favourite). It's something that has to be recognised and managed appropriately.

Dd1 has this.
One dentist blamed her drinking pop -and just would not have it that she only drank water.
Needless to say we've moved on from that dentist.

Now I've been told its something that happened during development in the womb,and noone's fault.

Her 2nd teeth seem to be coming through stronger so far,but her front teeth are discoloured.

I'm hoping she will get nhs orthodontics as her teeth are wonky because of early extractions.

I've been on a couple of threads on mn moaning about all the sweets they get at school on birthdays etc -its surprising how many people on mn won't accept its a 'real' thing...

Yes it's a real thing but the decay is caused by sugar. You can't just shop round until you find a dentist who agrees with you when you're wrong.

To have decay you need tooth, sugar and bacteria. Take away any one of them and decay doesn't happen. Some teeth/mouths are more susceptible and need to have sealants and fluoride and so on but if there was no sugar, there would be no decay.

Someone on here posted about their DS who had only ever been fed via a NG tube who had decay and I still haven't found anything in any research about the cause of that so if you're around, I'm still looking!! I think it may be to do with regurgitation but I don't know.

Agreed Mrs.

But you can,and I did,shop around when I had a dentist who disagreed with me because she was wrong.She would not accept my dd didn't have and didn't like pop regardless of my saying so.
She did have sweets,I never said she didn't. Things are more restrictive of course now we know.But she still has some sweets -but trying to avoid particular types.
But it cannot be denied that raisins,crisps,fruit and fruit juices are culprits too.

I know you are a dentist Mrs, but there's a difference between the truth you speak,and it being implied that you are feeding your child sugar in excess of the amounts the majority of children in this country consume.Which was the implication levied at me,and not taken well.

Mrsmorton, yes I did invite you. Thanks for coming. I am really going to take your advice to heart. Although DDhas had "minimal" sugar of lateas a toddler I was definately naive with things like juice, raisins, dried dpfruit etc. then when I cleaned all that up I still allowed sugar, and compared to others it did seem minimL. (However this has not helped). But, if as you say sugar is the culprit for decay, I am going to change her/our diet. We are doing really well except I Find myself being "sabotaged" , frequent sweets/cakes at school! But thank you for your input, I am determined to do what I can.
She sees the dentist again later this month, I am hoping to find out more as well.

mrsmorton DD has school lunches (she's in foundation) and they have a pudding with lunch every day. Would you recommend I start sending her in with packed lunches and cut the pudding? (There is so much that I like about school lunches - communal eating; DD is super-fussy and eats lots of different things at school that she would not try here; meals are pretty healthy (bar the pudding.)

Advice v much appreciated, thank you very much. It's really hard to know what to do - to what extent we should cut sugar, and how much of a difference it really makes.