Tooth decay child - confused.

[TinglyandCurious]

My 6 year old DS just had his 6 monthly check up and we were told he has a cavity on his back molar (baby tooth) and that it would need to be filled. I was slightly horrified expecting injections and fillings like an adult would have but then the dentist just cleaned the tooth and put some sort of paste on it and said that this was the filling and will see us in 6 months as usual. I was slightly confused - can someone explain what this is? Is it permanent? We’ve been told it will take 24 hours to dry and in theory should last as long as it’s needed (ie until he loses the tooth around age 10-12) but I don’t see how it could.

Anyway I did try and ask all these questions but I had a screaming toddler on my lap and was feeling totally ashamed about the whole thing (we are genuinely diligent about cleaning and minimising sugary snacks. No fruit juice or anything either.)

thanks so much!

The most important thing with baby teeth decay is to change diet now , otherwise there is no way the filling will last .

The second thing is not to traumatise a child with their first dental experience therefore to treat the baby tooth in the least traumatic way .

The filling used is likely one that is sticky and contains fluoride . With luck it will last until the tooth is lost normally or perhaps may need replacing occaisionally. However that is very much dependent on whether you manage to make the change in diet that is necessary .

In many countries they would not fill the baby tooth but make the hole more easily cleanable and concentrate on changing the diet.

The other technique is not to clean the tooth at all and put a stainless steel crown on to seal the decay in.

But the most important thing is to look at what your child is eating and drinking in between meals and just before bedtime. Not just sweets biscuits , cakes but yoghurts, smoothies, raisins , crisps , fruit juice , granola bars are a problem. Also you should be cleaning their teeth after them until they are around 8 .

Thanks @Lollygaggle thats incredibly helpful. It’s easy to think it’s the refined sugars that are to blame (of which he doesn’t have a lot) but we are definitely guilty of fruits, fruit bars and yoghurts etc as snacks. Will definitely be changing that. Is it worth brushing teeth after these kinds of snacks as well as the usual twice daily if he does have them?

Shouldn’t be snacking throughout the day….that’s what our dentist says….just your 3 meals a day…..and don’t brush straight after food

I wouldn't have thought it would need to last til 11 or 12, surely most kids have their adult teeth by about 8 or 9?
It's good they didn't do a really invasive treatment as it would probably have scared him.
Just keep sugar and fruit juice to an absolute minimum. And don't have him brush straight after eating. And don't rinse with water after brushing. Does he have an electric brush?
Don't worry, and don't let him worry. It's not a big deal if you change a few lifestyle aspects now he'll have perfectly healthy teeth when he's older.

Thanks so much @BobbyBiscuits for your kind reply. We will be even more careful now. He does have an electric toothbrush but that is a new addition. Am sure we can get on top of this now with some small changes.

@Kitkat1523 in a perfect world that would be the case yes!

It doesn’t matter if you brush teeth 37 times a day , if they are eating something with sugar or starchy more than three times a day they will get decay. So brushing twice a day is fine , spit don’t rinse.

what they eat at meal times does not matter , it could be nothing but chocolate , it’s what they eat and drink between meals that counts. Grazing is the worst because the acid from each sip, each bite takes an hour to neutralise. Keep the yoghurts , fruit bars, granola bars , raisins , flapjacks etc to meal times . If they have fruit inbetween it should be whole , unprovessed fruit ie not juice,smoothies,fruit bars , raisins etc which are as bad as sweets and coke.

Water and milk only inbetween meals to drink ( cows or animal milk as soya, oat , almond milk etc are often sweetened to make them palatable. )

Eating or drinking something sugary just before bed is even worse , even if they brush their teeth straight afterwards. Because you produce less saliva at night it takes even longer for the acid to be neutralised so the teeth are under attack for a long period during the night.

@Lollygaggle so informative! Thank you again for taking the time to explain this so clearly. We have more changes to make than I realised. Hopefully we can nip this in the bud now 🙂

The last baby teeth are lost , in most children, between the ages of 10 and 12 . Some children earlier , some later.
It’s not how much sugar , fruit juice etc you have , it’s how often is the problem. More than three times a day and you risk decay . Grazing, eating little amounts of sugary stuff all during the day is worse than eating a lot of sugary things in one or two goes. What you eat at meals is not a problem , it’s what’s eaten and drunk inbetween meals that causes decay.

@Lollygaggle yeah, I guess that's about right.
The dentist advised me to only have sweet things on one day a week as a kid. So I'd have maybe three sweet treats and drinks in one day then nothing sugared or fruit juice for the rest of the week. Things like sucking sweets, drinking pop/ juice between meals has to be vetoed at this point.
Of course once they're older they might regain some of these habits, but it should minimise tooth damage to get out of the habit now.

Did they mention hypoplasia? It could well be diet but it could also be hypoplasia. I'd get a second opinion if they didn't as it needs careful monitoring.

Very unlikely as hypoplasia mostly affects adult molar teeth not baby molar teeth . Ops child has decay in a baby molar tooth.

Thanks all, I really appreciate all the advice.

Just to clarify though (and to save my pride) my son doesn’t have loads of fruit juices, fizzy drinks or sweets across the week. He drinks nothing but water and he has chocolate once a week and an icecream once a week. However we have fallen in the trap of offering fruit, yoghurts, fruit oat bars etc in between meals which is clearly just as problematic so have learnt a lot from this thread which is appreciated! I guess it shows that we can think we’re being healthy and helpful but we really aren’t. I’m very angry with myself about the whole thing.

My DD had it on baby molars and then adult molars. I'm in an info group for it and most people have it on baby teeth and hope it doesn't effect the adult ones too.

My daughter has a cavity caused by reflux. She's 4 and it was discovered when she was 3. Since then she has been having fluoride treatment every 3 months.
She is too young for a filling so her option are a crown if we catch it before it gets too severe or removing it if it gets severe.
At our last dentist appointment our dentist was optimistic that with the 3 monthly fluoride treatment the cavity won't continue to develop and that she won't need to have the crown or the tooth removed. She has two other molars with staining making them more susceptible to cavities and they have been having fluoride treatment too and so far no more cavities.

Her teeth are most at risk at night when she refluxes and went through a period of chewing on the reflux in her sleep essentially grinding the acid into her teeth which is probably how the damage was caused. We now apply toothpaste to her molars when she goes to sleep (having already had them brushed properly before having bedtime stories) and we make sure she is propped up and keep on top of her reflux meds.

Any symptoms of reflux as with older kids it's often the dentist that picks up in it.

My dentist said kids who eat loads of chocolate, but on
only do it once a day…..are going to have far better teeth than those who snack on ‘healthy’ stuff throughout the day….it’s food for thought I guess

I wouldn’t worry too much, I can be a one off incident that’s caused it. I /gave my LG a chewy sweet she had never had them and couldn’t chew it and freaked when it stuck to her teeth. I was able to scrape it/brush it off- so I thought. 2 weeks later at the dentist there was a perfect cavity in a back molar and still remnants of the chewit. I had been cleaning teeth as normal and more as she was complaining about the sweet still being stuck.

Just to reassure you slightly our dentist said that genetics does come in to play too. I'm not saying that you can eat/drink whatever but she said that you can be extremely diligent and there can still be decay so try not to beat yourself up too much!

why on earth would you give your child a chewy sweet.

Classic Mumsnet 😂

Meanwhile, in real life, I've never come across a child who hasn't had a chewy sweet 😅

I remember taking my ds to the dentist and being accused of giving him coke in a bottle ) he was 6 at the time.

I had never done this. He didn’t even have coke. Sometimes it’s crap genes. I’ve got shit teeth, and he inherited them.

98% of all dental treatment is preventable .

Make the necessary dietary changes and a child should need no more dental treatment.
Unfortunately, though, the greatest predictor of poor oral health in an adult is having dental treatment as a youngster because too often the changes that need to be made in eating habits are not made. https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2017/06/14/health-matters-child-dental-health/

Apart from a few rare syndromes and some , but not all, hypoplastic teeth there is no such thing as weak teeth .

Thanks for all tips
@TinglyandCurious
Dont feel too bad - my 9 month old has shocking hole in middle of her front right tooth. She has had it less than 3 months- it’s not fully erupted - most people can’t tooth at all- -as it’s still high up in her gum (below her lip ) when she smiles.
I noticed white spots when she was 7months and suddenly a hole
She loves toothhbrushes so had her teeth/ gums brushed since before she had teeth
She was slow at weaning so only started actually eating solids in tiny amounts once a day at 7 months- broccoli, avocado, chicken, carrots and pear are her fav - not blended.

Our NHS dentist advises there is no treatment - will have to wait until she is 5 to see if she can sit through filling or alternatively have tooth removed. Hole is big enough that chai seeds get stuck in it ( she has egg allergy so hence we were using them) . How is fluoride treatment negotiated

I am panicking about future - strictly limiting snacks, limiting even fruit. I don’t know how to promote healthy attitude to food whilst protecting teeth - if snacks on savoury food are bad.

my older weans get sweets on Friday or alternatively an ice cream at weekend- this will have to stop as little one grows up.

Dentist said it is due to teeth not forming right when baby was in utero