Tooth decay in 5 year old?

[Red77]

I new to this - i've changed the subject of my thread in the hope i'll get some response!

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

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 as i've been told her adult molars won't come throught until she's 10-13years old?

Thanks

Your poor dd. Has she had a lot of antibiotics? That can affect the enamel forming apparently. Some of ds's teeth are hypoplastic and look discoloured and this is what our dentist said. She said that there is a chance that the adult teeth may be affected too.

Ds has crisps or other savoury things like cheese for snacks and only has fruit or sweets at meal times. His dentist gave me a lecture when he was 2 on what food was good and bad for his teeth!

Can't offer any advice on how to manage but I would have thought the dentist could advise on what she needs to do with no molars.

Thanks for your reply.

She hasn't had a lot of antibiotics but my nephew has the condition too, so i'm wondering if there's link there?

My dentist said that it was ok to have fresh fruit in-between meals, did yours advise only to have this with meals? I guess even fresh fruit has a high sugar content. I've been scouring the shops for low sugar snacks!

I think fruit is high in sugar and fruit acid so not good for teeth. Our dentist advised ds to brush his teeth after drinking diluted fruit juice too.

Things like rice cakes are low in sugar and are good snacks. Cucumber and carrot are good too (carrot is quite sweet but still a lot less sugar than fruit).

The absolute worst thing you can give as a snack (according to my dentist) are raisins. I used to get those little boxes but now ds doesn't have them at all.

DS had something similar and his adult back teeth had to be filled within months of coming through and interestingly my niece had a lot of problems with her adult teeth as well.

We were told in DS's case that it was probably fluridosis as we had given him extra flouride tablets when he was 4 on the advice of our dentist That dentist kept telling us ds must have a bad diet, which wasn't true at all. The dentist who filled his teeth said that wasn't the case at all and it must have happened when the teeth buds were forming. ie the flouride tablets or maybe antibiotics.

My sister was asked if she had antibiotics when was pregnant with dn, which she hadn't.

DS2 has awful teeth. No family history (both DH, DS1 and I have good teeth). I noticed the first hole in DS1's teeth when he was 1. Now those first teeth are nearly rotted away. They were the back upper ones. Now the back lower ones have gone the same way, and his further forward side teeth have developed holes (have gone from fine to massive hole in 2 weeks).

So far we've seen the same dentist each time. Every time been told there is nothing they can do, and just get sent away for another six months. He's 3.5 now.

I've no idea what else to do. Worried that we might end up feeling guilty in a few years if we don't follow it up with another dentist, but how do we do this?

DS2 did have abs at a young age, and I had them when pg with him as well. Not sure if this is why his teeth are so bad. It's very

How did you go about getting a second opinion?

Hi
Dd had problems with her top and bottom front teeth when she was 2. We were told for a long time she must be grinding them.
Eventually we saw another dentist as I was so worried and she hardly had any of these teeth left and were refered privately to a specialist next to Harley st.
We were told she had dry rot iirc and that if we waited to get them treated on teh nhs it would be too late to save her adult teeth. Apparently your average dentist wouldnt necessarily spot this.
She had false teeth stuck to what was left of these teeth at the cost of a few hundred pounds each.
You cannot tell the difference.

She's now 6 and still has them. She has never had any problem with any of her other teeth.

Her diet was fine btw. THe specialist said it was caused by breastmilk especially at night although I've not found other evidence to support this. Ds was fed for longer than dd and never had any problems.

DS1 & 2 were both bf for quite a while. DS1 to 22m, DS2 to 34m, but the decay started at about 14m I think. DS1's teeth are perfect.

Still don't know what caused the problem. Never had a bottle, good diet, no juice, no squash and nothing wrong with the other teeth.

How did you go about getting a second opinion?

We requested another appointment through the PCT dentist because we weren't happy with the teeth just being extracted. It just so happened that a different dentist was on duty and she was keen to save my ds's teeth.

It didn't work out that way in the end.

Red77, sorry that your DD had to go through such a traumatic dental experience. You mentioned your nephew has this condition too, actually hypoplasia does have a hereditary component.
I am guessing by the age of your DD that the teeth extracted were baby teeth? If that is the case, at least you can be reassured that these teeth will have a replacement coming up in a few years and now that you know about the condition you will be extra vigilant.
There is a chance that the condition might also affect her permanent teeth, so make sure you do as much as you can for prevention (fluoride on the toothpaste, healthy diet, brushing her teeth after meals, having sweets as a treat only once a week or together with the meals, eating cheese after the sweets can also help to counteract the acidity from the sweets). And be aware that even doing your best, she still might be at a higher risk of developing decay than the average child because of the hypoplasia, so keep going to frequent check-ups with her dentist so whenever it happens it can be detected and treated as soon as it starts.

Firstly, all baby molars are, by design, bumpy. They have what are known as pits & fissures in the biting surfaces, which makes cleaning harder, but not impossible as long as time & care are taken.

Please do not blame yourself for not having them protected sooner. The NHS used to fissure seal molars as routine, but now it is only done if the tooth is showing signs of decay, which is bloody ludicrous!

IMO, for her teeth to go from fine to decayed in 6 months, something is not right. By that I mean that she either has a very sugary/acidy diet or the dentists has missed something along the way! (I am not critising you, btw.)

At 6, you should still be brushing her teeth & a child's toothpaste should do the trick, fluoride in the water or not.

Her new molars (adult) will come through at 6, right at the back, and the others follow at 11-13yrs. With wisdom teeth any time from 17. (usually - obv differs person to person)

As an aside, MollieO, watch the crisps...some flavours do have sugar in them. Do not brush straight after having juice (can't believe you were told that by a dentist) as after consuming food/drink the teeth undergo an acid attack (for approx 20 mins) & you are just brushing the acid the around the teeth, which can cause acid erosion! As well as the fact that it is acidic drink naturally, it is just asking for trouble!

The reason raisins are thought to be bad is because they can get stuck in the teeth fissures.

DS2's teeth just seem to rot overnight. I spotted a teeny hole one day, and by the time we saw a dentist a few days later there were two holes in that tooth (black holes) with a small hole in another tooth. We saw a dentist at half term, and a tooth that was fine then, now has several large holes. We haven't been offered any treatment until he is old enough to sit in a chair and have it done without sedatives/anaesthetic. He's only 3 now.

We use horrible kids red toothpaste.. nothing special. I asked about using sensodyne or something, and the dentist said no.