Dentist advice

[Mummabearto4]

Hiya! My sons (7) dentist asked if he drinks tap water which he does and said to change him to bottled water or filtered water I stupidly didn’t question this and I’m just after some advice on why he would’ve said this if tap water contains fluoride?

my son has been struggling with decay for a few years had x amount of teeth removed and is on a low sugar diet and I brush his teeth every morning and night and we still are having a little trouble (these are baby teeth so I know they will fall out eventually) hoping he’ll have healthy adult teeth! 🩵 thank you

You need to look at the number of times a day your son has something sugary to eat or drink . Even if it's just a sip or a nibble of something.

In general it's not what they eat or drink at meal times that's the problem , it's what they snack or sip on in between times. Also if they have something to eat or drink just before bedtime, even if you brush teeth afterwards.

This is because every time you have even a tiny bit of sugar the acid produced sits on the teeth for an hour afterwards, longer if you go to bed because the saliva decreases and doesn't wash away and neutralise the acid.

You need to look at things like yogurt, smoothies,raisins , biscuits , fruit juice , flapjacks, grain bars , which contain as much sugar as sweets and fizzy pop. In general if your child has something sweet to eat or drink more than three to four times a day , no matter how many times you brush their teeth , they will get decay.

You need to make the diet changes now , otherwise his adult teeth will decay the same.

Tap water , especially if it is fluoridated is fine and bottled or filtered water is no better for their teeth. However you must also make sure the toothpaste you use contains fluoride as well. It's important that only sugar free drinks are consumed between meals because constantly sipping on drinks or grazing on snacks is the major reason for tooth decay.

We’ve changed his diet for a good while now for instance he’ll have
breakfast- coco pops/multigrain or shreddies
along with a yogurt and sometimes some fruit the we wait half an hour to an hour after eating that and I will brush his teeth.

snack- normally a banana or some kind of fruit

lunch- he has packed lunches normally for school so a sandwhich, cheese, pepperoni, fridge raiders, pot of fruit, yogurt

then he won’t have anything as he’s at school until he’s home which normally he’ll have a snack when he gets it sometimes an ice pop (not ice cream) or normally some kind of fruit or yogurt (the petit fillous sized yogurts)

then he’ll have dinner with a cup of sugar free vimto squash made weak mor some kind of sugar free squash

he is on paediatric cosmocol and picosulfate but I have been to the chemist about this and neither contains actual sugar it’s sweeteners
he also has a well kid multi-vitamin pastel after he ate his dinner

we’ve stopped sweets and chocolate and crisps it’s very rare he eats them and if so it’s as a treat once a week and normally after dinner as dessert or with his lunch I’m very mindful with checking the colour codes and how much sugar is actually in the foods/snacks/drinks he’s drinking now and tend to go sugar free.
he sips tap water through out the day but could probably do with actually drinking more water but he doesn’t have juice or fizzy pop through out the day, normally after dinner that’s it for food and I brush his teeth before bed but wait an hour after his last meal and then he has nothing after his bedtime brush except water which I let him have for bed after at least half an hour to 45 mins after his teeth are brushed to let the paste set in, he uses adults aquafresh or Colgate tooth paste whichever we can get hold of we have 2 other children and they eaten all the same since growing up and not had any problems with their teeth but our son bless him has just had some issues first his bowels then his teeth he’s 7 but he very small height wise he’s been tested for coeliac which is negative and they checked his hormones but so far nothings been picked up as abnormal to explain if he’s got something underlining but he’s to go back to paediatricians in 4 months for more blood tests as his haemoglobin was low (they said iron) so we started him on vitamins and higher foods in iron to hopefully he’ll with this as he struggles with his bowels so having iron tablets will make it so much more worse

sorry for the long post
❤️

There is loads of sugar in that diet OP. Coco pops and shreddies are full of sugar, as are petit filous, ice pops etc.
Fruit also has a sugar, and is acidic, which will damage the enamel.
You need to ask your dentist for a list of 'safe' foods for him but I would stick to cheese and crackers for a snack, for example.
The tap water is a red herring imo.
*caveat - I'm not a dentist

It doesn't matter what you have at meal times , it could be nothing but sugar , not good for your health but ok for your teeth. It's the number of times a day you have sugar.
Bear in mind Vimto is not sugar free it has no added sugar , that means it still has sugar in it from fruit . Not a lot but again it all adds to the number of times a day something sugary is consumed.

Brush before breakfast because overnight all the bacteria in the mouth will have multiplied and be ready to convert food into acid. By brushing before you eat you reduce the load .

petit filous type yoghurts have two spoons of sugar per tiny pot and even the "no added sugar" have a spoon of sugar per tiny pot. So best kept for meal times not as a snack. Again the ice pop will have sugar so best kept for a meal.

Fruit is ok as long as it's not dried , pulped or processed , eg raisins are as bad as sweets.

Toothpaste you are using is fine. Good luck with it all.

Fruit is better for you than fruit juice but is full of sugar. I would limit it to once a day after his evening meal. I know someone with terrible teeth because she ate so much fruit. I would think weetabix/oatibix/porridge or ready brek made with milk but without sugar would be better at breakfast, followed by toast with butter and maybe a boiled egg. Cheese has a lot of calcium and l would give him milk or water to drink and possibly a cup of tea if he likes it (no sugar), with squash, juice or fizzy drinks a rare treat. Plain biscuits like rich tea biscuits are not as high in sugar as many things and chocolate is better than sticky sweets as long as it is a treat. It looks as if he is not eating many vegetables at the moment, either. Unfortunately, some people are more prone to tooth decay than others and it sounds as if your son is one of them and your other children are luckier. It just means that you and he will need to be extra vigilant.

I'm sorry but a lot of this advice is wrong.

you are not looking to reduce the amount of sugar (although this has many benefits health wise in other ways ) , you are looking to reduce the number of times a day sugar is consumed.

Eating sugar with a meal is not the problem , so swapping breakfast cereals , whilst it might have other health benefits , is not going to make a difference.

Neither is swapping to plain biscuits because it is still a sugar attack. It will still mean the teeth are under attack from acid for an hour after eating a plain biscuit.

Whilst eating cheese after a meal is a good idea it is not because of the calcium (by the time a child is 7 most of their enamel is formed and for calcium deficiency to effect the teeth it would have to be so severe they have rickets. After enamel is formed calcium intake has no effect on teeth ) , but because it helps to neutralise the acid from sugar.

The message is simple , keep sugar attacks to no more than 3/4 a day , don't eat/drink anything but water before bed , use a fluoride toothpaste and spit, don't rinse.

@Lollygaggle l agree with your advice about sticking to set times of day for eating - l didn't mention this because you had already said it. You are also correct in saying that teeth should be brushed before breakfast. However, I still think that if a child has weak enamel, it is a good idea to overhaul the diet and keep sugar out of it as much as possible, especially in the form of drinks. This is what I did with my own children, all born in the nineties, and they had and have really good teeth as well as being healthy in other ways.

Other than some very rare problems , like amelogenesis imperfecta , there is no such thing as weak enamel. Most differences of decay within families are due to patterns of eating and/or drinking with grazing being a major component.

It is true the average British child eats far more sugar than is advised, or healthy. However with regard to tooth decay it is not the amount , it is the frequency that is the problem.

OP child has had problems with bowels and although their medication is now sugar free I would not be surprised if, in the past , they had been on medications , such as movicol, which can be high in sugar.