22 month old tooth discoloured - is it decay?

[annonymous1995]

Hi,

I was checking my 22 month olds teeth and noticed these areas of concern. On some teeth there are small white patches and on one tooth there is a large yellow patch.

for reference, she has been CMPA since 4 months old and had strong intravenous antibiotics at 3 months for urosepsis. We have just gone cold turkey on Neocate which she has had since 4 months when we realised how much sugar was in it. She is currently having occasional coconut yoghurts as she hates all alternative milks so currently has no daily milk intake. I try to give her vitamins but she hates it.

She hates brushing her teeth and it has been a constant struggle since she was 1. We do our best with pinning her and pushing the tooth brush in but sometimes we are lucky to get one swipe of her teeth. We have tried all the songs, games and techniques suggested previously but nothing works.

She has a dentist appointment Saturday (today is Monday) but I’m beside myself with worry thinking she has decay already. I had/have awful teeth due to not being shown how to care for them at a young age and I’m very paranoid about my daughters teeth. I would hate her to go through what I went through and would feel I’ve failed her as a mother if she needs dental work.

if anyone has seen anything like this before, I’d appreciate advice. I’ve not slept all night for worrying.

It could be enamel weakness. My daughter has a similar problem and has to go to the dentist every 3 months to get a special paste on her teeth. We also have to be really on top of tooth cleaning. It's not caused by lack of cleaning but not keeping the teeth clean will contribute to the weakness.

You can get Xylitol mints for after brushing, it reduces the overall plaque in the mouth. It’s been very successful in Finland where they give one daily to every child at nursery. Tooth decay has been reduced by over 60%. Dentist recently said that she is seeing weak enamel in children much more frequently than 30 years ago. On a plus note , grandson is VERY cooperative about getting his teeth brushed at bedtime now that he gets a ‘sweetie’.
Get you r child to eat as much varied food a week with lots of chewing opportunities, and steer away for convenience pouches and such like.

Clambering abroad. My daughter may have this too. The dentist gave us the same advice re cleaning but not 3 monthly visits. Do you recall the name of the condition at all?

Enamel weakness can be amelogenesis imperfecta, very , very rare and has a very characteristic look.
Deciduous molar hypomineralisation only happens on back teeth and will be caused by a disturbance during early pregnancy whilst teeth are being formed and happens on baby teeth.
Molar incisor hypomineralisation occurs on adult front and back teeth and is normally caused by illness in mid to late pregnancy or early babyhood/childhood. .

The enamel on all baby teeth and the front and first molar adult teeth is fully formed by birth so antibiotics , illness, vitamins etc do not affect these teeth after birth.

Many teeth can have slightly mottled look, or white patches , this is perfectly normal and is not a sign of weakness.

I think she told me it was enamel hypoplasia.

My DS had similar. Unsure why - I didn’t have antibiotics while pregnant…. He had to have 6 teeth out when he was about 6. It was under general, but not much fun. He was really upset when he came round, but was quickly back to normal. His adult teeth are fine. He’s not needed braces and has a nice smile. Good luck!

Hi all,

Thank you for your replies. They were greatly appreciated.

To update, my husband took my daughter to the dentist yesterday and she let him have a really good look at her teeth. He said her teeth are absolutely perfect and she had 16/20 of them that she should have at 3yrs and the other 4 are just under the gum line so she is teething. He said not to worry about the discolouration and that this is normal. He said there are absolutely no signs of decay and we are doing a fantastic job with keeping them clean.

He also told us not to worry about her being dairy free, he just advise we give her either a supplement or a yoghurt/some alternative milk daily but he had absolutely no concerns with her teeth and said he didn’t need to see her for six months. The dentist said he couldn’t believe how confident my daughter was in the chair and she sat there good as gold so I’m over the moon with her.

Thank you again for the replies, I feel so much better now. I also appreciated the dentist making a big deal of saying well done to us as well because I think he knew I needed to hear it as I am one of his patients and he knows how nervous I am at the dentist when I see him.

Massive sigh of relief 😮‍💨

Thanks again x

This is wonderful news. You are obviously doing a really good job as a mother. You are settling her up for a healthy future. Well done.

Thank you so much, that’s so kind of you ❤️