22 month teeth extraction

[alliebob]

Hello, I’m hoping someone can give me some advise. My daughter is 22 months and needs 6 teeth extracted, this is due to breastfeeding at night. She has a very healthy diet no sweet food and juice. We are working on stopping breastfeeding but so far we haven’t been successful. She’ll having her teeth out on Wednesday I’m so nervous as I’m scared of how much pain she’ll be in afterwards. Can anyone give with there experience when their little one had teeth extracted and what they was like afterwards. Just to add I’m a single mum and unfortunately rarely gets help from her father.

I didn't think breastfeeding was a factor in tooth decay. Which teeth are affected and how badly? Unusual to remove them at that age

www.laleche.org.uk/breastfeeding-dental-health/

Breastfeeding at night shouldn't cause tooth decay. Are you brushing her teeth properly?

I can't see how that's the case, who told you that? Unless there's a problem with her teeth overall.

You are brushing them aren't you? It's unusual for so many teeth needing extracted at such a young age.

God, poor munchkin! I think there's probably something else going on here. Breast feeding doesn't rot teeth in the way a bottle does as milk doesn't have a chance to 'pool'. I would ask your dentist if i could be an enamel issue, and if they say not get a second opinion.

Which teeth and do they have to come out? My daughter has decay on her front 4 teeth due to enamel hypoplasia and an undiagnosed lip tie. They wanted to take her teeth out when she was two but I refused. She has had dentist appointments with a paediatric dentist every three months who has carefully monitored her teeth. They don’t look great, but she is now 5.5 and they’re still going.
Extraction is NOT the only option.

Sounds horrible poor little thing

It would be very extreme for breastfeeding till 22mnths to cause 6 teeth to need extracting. I would think it unlikely that nightitme breastfeeding caused that extent of decay.

I'm not saying that to be mean but it's important to look for other causes to prevent further extractions down the line

Children normally cope really really well with extractions! (At least the after effects) she might be in a bit of pain afterwards, however seems to be less than with adults. And children learn to eat without their teeth quickly too!

Oh, also, studies have shown that until 23 months there is no link between breastfeeding and tooth decay. It's slightly more likely after that point.

Same as what everyone else says - it’s not the breastfeeding. She’s either got something wrong with her teeth or are there ‘healthy’ culprits you haven’t considered? Raisins and other dried fruit or fruit leathers (like Yo Yos) are actually a prime cause of tooth decay as they stick to teeth like mad.

I’m sure there’s an article somewhere that points to something in breast milk being protective for teeth. It doesn’t make evolutionary/biological sense for breastfeeding to rot teeth. Traditional cultures breastfeed to an older average age than we do, including night feeding, which indicates our ancestors did the same.

Both of mine were 90min-2hrly night feeders until 19mo. Beautiful teeth. Dentist has said I don’t even need to bring them in as often as is recommended.

If she’s got a sore mouth, first thing she’s probably going to want to do is breastfeed...

Thank you for your replies, the nighttime feeding has cause the decay as the natural sugars from the breastmilk are sitting on the teeth through out the night, the same way if a toddler was slipping juice throughout the night, which over a period of time causes the teeth to decay. The dentist I spoke to also had a very similar situation to me with her child and did mention it's common. I have reduced the night time feeding but having completely stopped due to my little one being so dependent on it, I was advised to introduce a dummy instead of feeding but daughter refuses to use it.

Jut to add I'm brushing my teeth twice a day using the recommended fluoride dosage. When her teeth erupted they were completely healthy

*Brush my daughters teeth twice a day

It’s not common

And I don’t believe your dentist has the same problem with her child.

The dentist is talking out their arse, sorry to be blunt!
Breastfeeding does not and would not, in any amount, cause that level of tooth decay to need extraction.
Are you sure she hasn't got enamel erosion?
I'd be taking her elsewhere as it's not common and definetly not normal.

wow your dentist is handing out false information there! you are the only ever case I have heard of,. Breastfeeding wouldn't be so encouraged if it commonly caused tooth decay...

Your dentist is wrong and it would make me question them enough that I would seek a second opinion.

You are also wrong about nighttime breastfeeding. Sorry. There is something else that has caused this.

What your dentist has told you is the theory that many dentists recite, but it’s based on extended bottle-feeding-to-sleep at night, where the milk pools in the back of the mouth and sits on the teeth. This doesn’t happen in breastfeeding because the mechanism is completely different.

Take the evidence that dementedpixie has linked to above and show it to your dentist.

With regards to it being ‘common’...isn’t it 1% of children in the UK that are still breastfeeding at one year old? How many of these are also night feeding? And then how many of those then present with tooth decay?

No way is it ‘common’.

Breaatmilk enters the mouth past the teeth and needs to be actively sucked, unlike bottle mouth, where it flows in and pools behind the teeth.

Your dentist needs to do we research and stop peddling harmful misinformation.

'Blaming breastfeeding or breastfeeding to sleep for tooth decay is very common. The belief that breastfeeding to sleep causes dental caries is based on only 3 articles by Bram and Maloney1, Gardner, Norwood and Eisenson2 and Kotlow3 that were done in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The authors presented case reports of just nine babies in total, two of whom also received bottles. Case reports have a very low level of scientific evidence; not one of them included any experimentation or trials. The conclusions in these articles were based on this small number of case reports and on the dentists’ own inadequate understanding of breastfeeding.
Later research opposes the notion that breastfeeding has anything to do with tooth decay. This evidence includes population studies which have shown no relationship between breastfeeding and tooth decay in large groups of young children'

www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/breastfeeding-and-tooth-decay

I don’t mean this to sound rude, but aren’t her teeth too new to of even had chance to decay to the extent of removal? even if someone didn’t brush their child’s teeth surely she won’t of had all them teeth long? My son is nearly 22months brushes twice a day and has cows milk in a sippy cup before bed! So I’m struggling to understand as his are fine and it’s cows milk he has, that how would breastfeeding cause this for your child I really would go back for a 2nd opinion on this one as there must be surely something underlying? Very distressing for you both though and I really am positive that whatever the outcome she’ll be just fine X

I’m sorry, It’s simply impossible to believe that your not quite two year old needs six teeth removed and your dentist has reassured you that it’s quite common.
So common, in fact, that it also happened to their own child 🧐

Did you or your partner have any trouble with your baby teeth? My DP has suffered terribly with both sets and the dentist did say this can be hereditary his father had to have most his baby teeth removed in the 60s.

Also, decay can be reversed if you can keep the teeth clean. You can also have them rinsed with silver nitrate which will help stop active decay and prevent it progressing (though it does stain the teeth black). If prone to decay, might also be worth having the chewing surfaces of the molars covered with a layer of hard plastic to help protect them- find a better dentist and ask them.