Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Children's health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Hypoplasia in teeth - anyone familiar with this?

1 reply

Red77 · 13/11/2009 11:53

My DD(5) had to have 3 teeth extracted recently under general anaesthetic (GA). I am absolutely gutted and am torn with guilt

She's always attended the dentist with me every 6 months and would only let the dentist look at her teeth when she was about 3 years old. He then mentioned that her back molars were a bit'bumpy' but said that it was nothing to worry about. I asked if there was anything i should do and told him that she drank very dilute 'high juice' and sweets now and then for a treat, which he said was fine. We went on seeing him but i was noticing changes in these back teeth.

About 6 months ago we started seeing the dentist's daughter and straight away she noticed that there was some decay in the teeth. She said they were hypoplastic and that the enamel hadn't formed on the properly making them weak and susceptible to decay. She tried to fill them but my daughter was extremely distressed and she couldn't finish the procedure. We were then referred to a PCT dentist who immediately said that her teeth were in a bad way and that they should be extracted under general anaesthetic. We saw another dentist for a 2nd opinion and they decided that the teeth could be restored under GA.

We took my daughter in for the procedure last week and the dentist there decided that the teeth were too decayed to save so they has to extract 3. I am finding it very difficult to come to terms with this. I am racked with guilt and feel like i could have done something to prevent this. I wish i'd changed to more child friendly dentist who would've made my daughter feel more comfortable from the beginning. I also wish i'd pushed for these teeth to be protected earlier on so that we could've delayed this outcome.

I was also told by the PCT dentist that because there is no fluoride in the water where we live we should be using an adult toothpaste. Why wasn't i told this?

I do blame myself and just wish i'd made more effort to read up on this condition want to inform other parents to be aware of it.

I would like to know if any other parents have children who have had teeth extracted at a young age and how they have adapted. I hate watching my daughter eat as she's trying to only use her front teeth because there are none at the back in her bottom jaw?

Thanks

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
YourCallIsImportant · 13/11/2009 22:37

I am really sorry for what you and your dd are going through. It sounds like you did everything that you could have done, regular check ups, taking dentist's advice etc, so don't be too hard on yourself.

I'm in Scotland, and we don't have fluoride in the water here. I was told by our dentist that we shouldn't be using normal children's toothpaste which has about 600ppm fluoride, and that we should be using toothpaste with at least 1000 ppm to compensate for the lack of fluoride in the water. Don't know if this can help you going forward.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread