CP and tooth enamel

[icanneverremember]

Hi all,

long story short - can tooth enamel be directly affected by having cerebral palsy? My son has no weakness in his hands and his teeth are cared for in the same way as his twin brother's. However he has had two fillings already aged 6. I have one filling as an adult and my dh has two so we're not a family with weak teeth. We now have to pay particular attention to our ds's teeth and am wondering if it should be mentioned for dla purposes or whether it's unrelated and just bad luck...

DGS has CP and also had a degree of IUGR as he was 4.5 lbs at near term. He had enamel hypoplasia and needed nearly all his teeth removed at two as they just crumbled away. Due to not enough calcium getting through to his teeth before birth the enamel was very weak. He did have a traumatic birth too but I think the damage had already been done before birth.

His molars (4) were fine and we hope his second teeth will be ok but at 5 we are still waiting for them to appear.

Maybe one of your twins had a better working placenta than the other. I would guess they are not identical?

Was your son premature? My dd was very prem and has CP. There is a link between prematurity and weakened tooth enamel. Not all prems are affected but teeth development is susceptible at this time when they are born. My dentist says that on the whole their grow up teeth are not affected.