Cavities at an extremely young age?

Ashley - posted on 07/08/2010

@ Marina, no it wasn't long at all :)

Thank you all very much. You all have been extremely helpful. She's going on July 26 (not sure what time yet, the nurse has to call me about all that). They're going to put her asleep, I think it'd be better for her that way. However, they're going to let me stay in the room with her, so that makes me feel a little better. Yes, starting tomorrow, I'm going to have a rule that she needs to brush her teeth after breakfast, lunch, and before she goes to bed. She will also be going to bed with straight water as well (thats going to be hard at first, but I think we can handle it). I just got the last of my 5 real teeth that I had left pulled earlier this evening, so I know a little bit has to do with genetics. I bought some fluoride water that I can mix half of that with her juice and her juice is already 40% less sugar than all the other juices out there. Also, once she's able to learn how to spit will be getting her some fluoride mouthwash, and hopefully soon she'll let me floss her teeth...so far she hasn't :/, I've also am being more cautious of her diet, I went to the store the other day and bought things that were less sugar and what not..I did not realize how much sugar almost everything has, it's pathetic. We've been giving her soy milk, because if she has straight Vitamin D milk, it upsets her stomach terribly and I told her doctor about it but she still doesnt think she's lactose intolerant...Soy Milk has less sugar than Vitamin D (I can only get Vitamin D on Wic so that doesn't help at all).

Renee - posted on 07/07/2010

My sister's little boy is now 3yrs old. My sister is very anal about her son brushing his teeth at least 2 times a day if not more. The other week he was complaining that his teeth hurt him so they took him to a dentist. Come to find out that he had 8 cavities. The dentist said that it was a combo of being on so many steroid medications due to asthma and respiratory infections as well as family history (his dad's side) of "soft" teeth. They are filling them 2 at a time. My sister felt like she was an awful mother first for "letting" her son get cavities and 2nd for not noticing them until he complained about his teeth hurting.

Mary - posted on 07/07/2010

A friend of mine had to get her 2 yr old sons teeth capped. He had so many cavities they had to knock him out to fix them all. Whatever the results are with the dentist make sure that you take extra care in brushing after you feed your daughter raisins,fruit bars and fig newtons. They are not as bad for children as some things but get stuck in the teeth very easily. Good luck.

Marina - posted on 07/07/2010

My older son also started getting teeth at 4 months and had all his teeth by 16 months and I started noticing that his front teeth were getting discolored, and then they started looking icky so we took him to the pedicatic dentist and he had bad cavities in 3 of his front teeth and a regular cavity in a 4th front tooth. All 4 top front teeth. He needed "baby root canals" and caps with porcelain veneers on 3 teeth and a filling in the 4th! I was horrified and felt, like you, as though I was an awful mother and had no idea this could happen. Our problem was I was still nursing him and he was still nursing at night while sleeping in our bed. I never knew that nursing could do that, it makes sense i guess since bottles can- I just wasn't told. We also think he had somewhat weaker enamel on his teeth- maybe due to genetics, maybe because we don't use our tap water that had fluoride added and so he'd never had any in his diet. We started using tiny dabs of flouride toothpaste, brushing the teeth with ACT flouride rinse after his regular brushing and also using child size flouride flossers made by dentek. He had since knocked one of the porcelain veneers off a tooth but the dentist says the teeth are still in goodshape and healthy now(He is now 3). It was a very exspensive and frustrating problem for us and our son was given a type of awake sedation, where they are awake but cannot feel anything and later do not remember anything at all that happened. They do have to be put in a tiny straight jacket which was sad. We felt it was safer than heavier sedation in which they are "Asleep" and it didnt require an extra nurse or anesthesiologist. With our second son, I am not nursing in bed and there are tooth wipes that can be used for nightime feedings. His teeth are in good shape =) Hope this helped, sorry it was so long!

Ashley - posted on 07/07/2010

Thank you all for the reassurance. Yeah, I have the orajel training fluoride free toothpaste. I took her to the dentist and her four front top teeth are cavities and her back bottom molars are starting to become cavities. We have it set up on July 26, they're going to give her anthesia(sp?) and try to do pulptonomies and other things to fix her cavities...however if they can't be fixed, they're going to pull her front top teeth.

Kristin - posted on 07/06/2010

My Son who is now 6 1/2 years old did not get any teeth until 1 week after he turned 1 years old. I had a denist appt set for the following week. Since he gained 4 teeth in the week after his bday the denist said that I did not need to bring him in until he was about 3 and would let someone stick their fingers in his mouth. I was doing the same thing as you. Brushing his gums before the teeth came out and brushing the teeth after they appeared. I was even flossing his teeth a couple times a week(when he would let me) But since he was about 5 years old it has been a constant battle to ward off cavities. We brush in the morning before school, when he gets home from school and before bed with flossing at night. All of his cavities have been on the front teeth and we had to get his bottom front teeth pulled because the decay was so bad. His teeth are weak and the filling are always falling out. I have even changed from a Family dentist to a Pediactric dentist and we still have the same problem. And let me say that my Son never had a pacifier, and had his last bottle at his first bday. I also still water down his juice to 50/50. It has been explained to us that sometime children have soft teeth and are more prone to cavites. He uses Sensodyne pediactric floride tooth paste, Act Floride mouth wash and floride tablets from the dentist and still gets cavities. The dentist said there is a good possibility that his Adult teeth will be stronger and generally are. I also felt like I was failing as a parent since I never had issues with my teeth. I have had on 2 cavities. My Husbands Family has had issues with their teeth. So it might be genetic, that I don't know for sure. But as long as you can say that you are taking care of you child's teeth the best you can, try not to stress about the things that are out of your control. Just continue the brushing 2-3 times a day and after snacks with sugar and talk to your dentist if there is anything else you can do. Good Luck I know how you feel.

Angie - posted on 07/06/2010

My oldest had 2 cavities tha twe discovered right around 2 years. I was horrified and stayed up almost all night the night I found them googling. When we made it to the dentist he said they were not bad enough to fill yet so he did a special flouride treatment and we go for that every 4 months and then we use a special toothpaste at home every other night. He said that some kids just get cavities no matter what you do.

Angela - posted on 07/05/2010

I felt horrible when my 4 year old got his first cavity, but the dentist assured me we were brushing his teeth fine. In our family our molars are deeper than most people's so our chance of cavities is greater. Some people just get cavities easier than others, you are doing a great job, don't worry. Just talke her in and get it fixed. They will probably clean it out and put a cap on like they did for my son, they most likely will not pull, that could mess things up since she is so young and won't get her permanent teeth for a long time.

Michelle - posted on 07/05/2010

Just go to the dentist and see what they say.They may fill the cavity or cap it, if it is bad enough pull it out. It could be from bottle feeding with the bottle being left with the child over night. That is was happened to one of my teachers children. It could be if you are using a flouride toothpaste as well and not a child/training toothpaste. However I am not a dentist nor do I kow your exact situation.You didn't fail as a parent, it is just a part of life that you can do all you want to control but will never fully prevent your darling children from developing cavities, just like you can't prevent them from growing up.