3 year old tooth cavity

[HolmeH]

I’ll begin by saying I’m beyond mortified that my child has a cavity in her tooth (a back molar). I’ve never had a hole or filling in my 33 years of life & I’m fistidious about our oral hygiene.

We brush DD’s teeth twice a day with an electric toothbrush & have as long as she’s had teeth. It wasn’t always easy to get a great clean when she was a baby-18 months-ish but we did our best to distract and get a good scrub in!

We are quite strict on treats, she does get chocolate or homemade biscuits but maybe 2/3 times a week max & just one/small portion. She’s never had chewy sweets & doesn’t drink fruit juice or squash. Just water & milk with breakfast..

But the dentist thinks it’s likely come from her love of dried fruit 😣 she has a mini box raisins & a small handful of dried banana and mango most days. She loves it. She also eats lots of fresh fruit, apples, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, melon, oranges (not all everyday obvs!)..

I naively never even considered that this might hurt her teeth.. I eat a lot of dried fruit too & it’s never hurt mine 😣

The dentist has said he’ll leave it as he wouldn’t want to traumatise her & it’s not causing her any pain at the mo.. is this a normal way to proceed?! I’m worried it’ll get worse.. I feel so sad. & like the dentist must think I’m a terrible mum feeding her sweets & not looking after her teeth 😭

It's never the amount of sugar we consume but the frequency. If your DD is having one or two bits of raisin / dried apple ( whatever) lots of times during the day then the attack on the teeth by the sugar is really prolonged. It would be better (from a dental perspective) just to eat the lot in one go. (Ideally brushing teeth afterwards but hey, I would never have done so with my children so I'm not knocking anyone for that ).
Also, some people seem to have stronger enamel than others. Sounds like you're fortunate and perhaps your daughters adult teeth will be similarly strong. 😁

Our DC's dentist said if they are eating a lot of dried fruit they may as well be having sweets as the effect on the teeth are the same. She did say if you really have to give them dried fruit or juice to only do it at mealtimes and then brush teeth half an hour later. Most children can probably get away with eating a lot of dried fruit or drinking juice with no problems, but if your DD is predisposed towards tooth cavities then it's not a good idea. Try not to feel bad though - sounds like you give her a really healthy diet generally.

My ds2 has a cavity in a back tooth that they have only just filled as it started hurting him, it was first noticed 18 months ago. Its a quick procedure to fill the tooth but they need to clean the cavity out and its a lot of equipment and prodding around in a little mouth. Ds was 6 when his cavity was filled and he was worried by the equipment and noise.