Dental Question : Calling JASPER please !!! (or other dentist ?)

[AngelinaB]

Hi everyone,

Haven't posted for ages (formerly posted as Scatterbrain but have forgotten password !)- back at work now and no time - glad to see you're all still avid mumsnetters !

Got a problem - DD (now 3.25) has a rotten molar and it is giving her hell - it seems that everything she eats irritates it and she is crying a lot with the pain. Problem is our dentist says there's nothing he can do - she is apparently far too young for a filling, and he wants to see how it goes before he considers an extraction.

Does anyone out there know if 3 year olds can have fillings ? Or is there anything I can do to ease her pain. We clean her teeth carefully twice a day with the Boots Crocodile (with Xylitol) toothpaste and she hardly ever eats sweets/chocolate. The dentist thought that drinking neat juice may have caused the rot - so now she has very dilute juice.

Please let me know what you think - she is in such a state !!

Thanks xxxxx

Sounds like you need a visit elsewhere if he won't treat her.

There is no reason why she can't have the tooth filled if she will sit still and have it done. It sounds like the nerve is affected so the tooth may be dying anyway. To me it sounds like it needs cleaning out and dressing. If not she may end up with a 'fat face' abscess.

You really need to try to avoid an extraction if possible but it may come to that if you don't get it treated.

You need to find out where the local dental clinic is for some advice. Ring a couple of local hospitals or your community hospital. The dental clinic will be able to sedate your daughter if necessary and they might be more positive about treatment than your dentist.

Hope all goes well. I am not a dentist but qualified as a nurse in 1988.

Mine have had fillings at that age, and extraction. This is down to the make up of their teeth, not because I force feed them sweets, and never brush them btw!

I think jasper is way at the moment so may not see this.

I took my ds to the dentist last week (same age) and he's got to have a filling (whicn made me feel terrible). Going on Monday to have it done.

Are you in london? I have a wonderful nhs dentist in london. And she's great with kids (has several of her own).

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Vivat, hope it goes ok on Monday. don't feel too bad, i never had sweets or pure fruit juice as a child (parents too poor!) and i had filling after filling. dentist said i had very thin enamel which was why i had so many holes. will ds have an anaesthetic? see you wednesday at the meet-up.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your messages - dh has just been to the senior dentist in the same practice for a filling himself and discussed dd's problem with him - apparently as she is in pain some intervention is necessary, but he wouldn't say if he would do a filling without seeing her - so I have now made an emergency appointment for Monday afternoon with the senior partner (she saw an associate last time)- will let you know how it goes with him, if he won't do it I will take her elsewhere armed with your advice !

Thanks - and good luck Vivat for Monday - I am terrified of how I will keep mine still enough for a filling - she hates loud noises too - so I will be in for a rough one !

Thanks again xxxx

Hi again,

Went to the dentist again today and he has referred dd as an urgent case to the local children's dental clinic - for a filling, most likely under sedation. He's also put a temporary "coat" on the tooth to give her some relief in the meantime.

Even better he said that he suspects the decay is due to a malformation of the enamel on that tooth in its developmental stages - possibly due to antibiotics - rather than due to anything she's eaten or drunk.

So - thanks again to you all - I felt much more confident armed with your experience !

One last question for robinw - I've got the xylitol granules - they came today - what do you recommend doing with them & when and how often ?

Sorry for all the Qs - I feel a bit of a klutz now !

Thanks xxxx

my ds1 has a poor;y tooth, it gave him so much pain he had to take paracetomol(sp?) his cheek swelled up and i took him to emergency dentist... he is brill and was the only dentist i can go to... i am a wuss because of bad dentist experiences in past. DS1 was given a filling that didn't use drill..... what was this? a temporaty one?

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