4 year old DD needs silver caps

[Peasize]

Moved the topic to Parenting to hopefully get more replies: I have been told my 4 year old daughter needs two silver caps to protect her teeth. I am so sad that I have let her down, my other daughter who is 18months older has never had a single issue with her teeth. The dentist says it’s down to prolonged use of a milk bottle at night. Both have always attended 6 monthly dental appointments and I have always brushed their teeth twice a day without fail. My question is are there any UK mums whose children have had silver caps/you know any children with them in the UK? I have never heard or seen children with them and didn’t realise it was a thing. Google seems to bring up mainly USA posts about them. Thank you, P

Both. Just seal them all was our attitude. She’s going to have all those baby molars for a few years yet and we definitely wanted the adult ones sealed. We’ll seal any new teeth as well.

I think the decay does speed up the more it develops, iyswim. We were really shocked because DD has a good diet and we do tooth-friendly eating (so sweet things only with or straight after dinner, only water to drink, snacks that aren’t too carb-heavy) and we brush her teeth (WE do, not her) twice a day with an electric toothbrush, try disclosing tablets every so often to see what we’re missing but she still ended up with this terrible tooth The rest of them are beautiful. She is also a grinder so I don’t know if that contributed.

she was also put on 4 month recall at her old dentist but he still did nothing so I’m glad we moved her to this new one. Now her molar’s sorted she’s back to six month recall.

If it helps, our dentist has said if you are going to eat anything sugary, to make sure you eat it all in one go. Don’t have a bag of sweets and eat them throughout the day for example. I have a 14 year old boy who loves a sweet at the moment! No fillings etc and teeth are great. We have had sealant on both our children’s teeth also.

@lasagnerosesponge Thank you for your advice, I’ll definitely ask about this when we go back next week

So many children don’t have access to a dentist. That’s the biggest issue where I work. Children do have poor teeth, but when there’s no health visitor (phone appointments don’t work) no nhs dental care and no access to any type of informal family support (such as the type that existed in children’s centres) it’s really no surprise. Good dental care should be rooted in prevention, early detection and parental education not a complete black hole of services coupled with shaming parents.

The other thing that can affect teeth is prolonged use of antibiotics. My child had neonatal sepsis but has had additional fluoride varnishes and appointments. If they’d had no access to a dentist, it’s likely they’d have had some cavities.

YY to fluoride varnish. DD’s NHS dentist didn’t ever offer or use one. DD2’s private dentist does it as a matter of course. DD1’s private dentist does as well.

Poppycock.

I worked in a school for many years, and didn't find that at all.

Total nonsense.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/oral-health-survey-of-5-year-old-schoolchildren-2024/national-dental-epidemiology-programme-ndep-for-england-oral-health-survey-of-5-year-old-schoolchildren-2024

In the UK, the leading reason for child hospital admission was avoidable, dental issues.

21,000. Children age between 5-9 were admitted to hospital with tooth decay between 2024 and 2025.

Lots of UK schools implement still don’t implement advised, supervised tooth brushing programmes.

Our children are being failed by our lack of education. Ignoring the issue and calling ‘poppy cock’ is adding to the problem.

Drop it as soon as they are able to drink from a. cup. Is that not still the advice? Mine are 25 and 22 and not one filling between them.

I’m a teacher in primary and tooth care is part of PSHE but we don’t do the parent job of brushing their teeth, we just tell them the foods and drinks to avoid and to clean teeth twice a day for 2 mins. We also do the experiment with eggs in various liquids and that usually shocks them.

This is not true. @AnxiousUniParent Please do not post untruths and worry people unnecessarily. @Peasize i commented on your other thread, please speak to your dentist again about these hall crowns. Getting very wrong advice like from the poster above will do nothing for your child’s oral health.

Only adult teeth are fissure sealed , not baby teeth . Fluoride paste cannot be applied on some children and antibiotics do not cause decay unless in a sugar solution and used for a long period.

The most important thing is not tooth brushing its frequency of eating or drinking something sugary or starchy.

What you eat or drink at meal times doesn’t matter, it could be nothing but sugar and it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s every sip or bite inbetween meals that’s important , especially just before bed. This is not just sweets, biscuits, crisps , etc but also “healthy foods “ like yoghurt, flapjacks, fruit juice , raisins, smoothies, non dairy milks (most are sweetened to make palatable) etc . Each sip or bite attacks teeth for an hour afterwards , longer if consumed just before bed. Tooth brushing is important but won’t defeat a diet where someone is sipping or grazing inbetween meals.

Animal milks do not damage teeth , but soya , oat milks , and other non dairy milks do as most contain sugar to make them palatable

The school I work in children from pre-school to year 2 all have a toothbrush in class and brush their teeth for a full 2 minutes every morning. Obviously, parent should absolutely be doing this.. but the fact is many don’t, or many let their very young children have all the control with brushing and don’t check, so teeth are often missed. I was also a dental nurse for many years before going into education. I’ve seen a lot of children’s teeth in my time 🤣

Glad to hear your school implements dental hygiene education 😊 if only every school did!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/supervised-toothbrushing-for-children-to-prevent-tooth-decay

there is definitely an issue with children and decay… unsure why others are saying otherwise! It’s terrible.

Just isn’t the time in the day for that or the staff to oversee. Why should schools pick up the workload of parents?

I’m not saying they should, not for the parents at least. But they are responsible for the welfare of the children while in their care, why would you not want the best for the kids that you teach?

Im not talking about anything to do with dental health, obviously.

My comment was in response to you saying that silver caps (and by extension, one presumes, all dental problems) are seen by you exclusively in children of neglectful or moddycoddling parents.

That is what I meant by poppycock.

It really is a load of twaddle. And a completely subjective statement by yourself.

Youve never, despite working with a range of families, ever seen a child from (what you declare to be) a 'good' family have any tooth decay?

Fabricated nonsense.

That's what I was getting it, my child isn't neglected so is he mollycoddled? What does a mollycoddle child look like? How do you know they fall into this category?

My DD definitely has fissure sealant on all of her molars, including the baby teeth. You can see it. I did forget to say that she has a bit of enamel hypoplasia. I’m not sure it’s a standard treatment but it’s what our dentist suggested and I was happy to go with it given that one of her teeth was so awful - I am very worried about her ending up in pain from rotten teeth.

Because schools are educators not parents.

So educate them on good dental hygiene?

Schools do. Its covered in the Year Three curriculum. Educate yourself.

Also in other years through Science and PSHE lessons.

This. Educating them doesn’t mean actually cleaning 30 children’s teeth every morning! You have no idea how much we need to get through in a day.

Amen.

Ludicrous to think we could fit this into the school day on top of everything else- would be logistically impossible for that many pupils!

How is she doing now ?

how is she doing now? any complaints at all?