Just wanted to share our story:
Background: My son Gavin's teeth came in at 12 months mostly ok, but with some small yellowing near the gum line. My dentist (who employs regular and holistic type therapy) explained he had an enamel defect but it didn't seem too serious. By the time Gavin was 2, the yellowing had gotten worse and dark areas were appearing on more teeth. I took him back to my dentist who said to go ahead and try xylitol (which I had read about), but in the meantime sent me home w/ 2 tubes of MI paste, with instructions to put it on and leave it on as long as I could. So by the time Gavin was 2, I was putting MI paste on at night after he fell asleep. Fast forward to now, Gavin is 3, and I took him to a new pediatric dentist a few months ago (our insurance changed and didn't cover my previous dentist, who had recommended we see a pediatric one anyway). The ped dentist, upon seeing Gavin for the first time, and not knowing anything about our use of xylitol, frequent brushing, MI paste, etc, said she wanted to extract 4 teeth. I actually cried in her office I was so stunned! I could tell (as his mom) that some of his affected teeth had gotten better and my husband and I really thought we had made some progress with remineralization.
The very next thing I did was read up more on Healozone, and search for a Healozone dentist. Yesterday we had our first visit with Dr. Keith Hollander in PA, and it was fabulous. His office staff is amazing, with kids and their parents, and I believe him to be extremely smart & knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, patient, and very thorough. I spoke before of all the things we had been doing (for almost 2 yrs now) with my child to improve his teeth; Gavin has 8+ teeth which suffer from extensive childhood caries (ECC). Dr. Hollander showed me exactly what good our protocol had done--a lot! Most areas are remineralizing, they are hard. There is an area of active decay too though, and some spots which were in-between. He discussed what updates to make to our routine, scraped my 3 year olds problem areas, drilled a bit, and applied Healozone, as well as flouride varnishes. My kids loved the experience, which I know sounds crazy, and I'm not even exaggerating (I brought my oldest to see him too, even though he does not have ECC). The entire day, we were in the car for over 4 1/2 hours, but it was totally worth it. I've read a bit about others Healozone experiences, but my son did not cough at all, and wasn't the least bit upset, no tears, he was very calm and aware of what was going on (he'll be 4 in Sept), he even sat in the chair by himself. A little of that I'm sure is my sons nature, but mostly I believe it was telling of the positive, genuine feeling in Dr. Hollanders office. I could tell my kids trusted him.
Right now Dr. Hollander felt fine with not doing any additional invasive things but to continue our protocol + healozone treatments--Gavin doesn't have any infected roots, has never had an abscess or any tooth pain, and is showing positive results with remineralizing. In all this process, I think I've learned--and which Dr. Hollander explains very, very well--is how dentistry can move in a new direction, that of restoring teeth, using noninvasive methods to control decay (vs. immediately getting it out w/ drilling/filling), and utilizing dietary and routine measures to remineralize, so most importantly, the teeth stay put!!
HTH. I'll update in a few months if I can with our progress after the healozone.
Sande
PS--here is our dental/diet protocol:
+ Brush 3x/day (most importantly after each meal, and always after sugary treats, which we have not eliminated.) We just bought a sonicare toothbrush and the kids are having a ball with it--they call it the tickle toothbrush!
+ Use powdered xylitol to brush or Squiggle toothpaste
+ Flouride rinse 2x/day (just started this recently)
+ Xylichew gum as often as they want
+ xylitol granules in place of sugar in foods (in moderation)
+ flossing
+ MI paste which I apply after my son falls asleep for the night
+ we plan to add in xylitol mints/candies
+ We have pretty much eliminated raisins or other small dried fruit.
+ Cod liver oil/butter oil supplement
+ Weston Price diet (including lots and lots of raw milk)
Background: My son Gavin's teeth came in at 12 months mostly ok, but with some small yellowing near the gum line. My dentist (who employs regular and holistic type therapy) explained he had an enamel defect but it didn't seem too serious. By the time Gavin was 2, the yellowing had gotten worse and dark areas were appearing on more teeth. I took him back to my dentist who said to go ahead and try xylitol (which I had read about), but in the meantime sent me home w/ 2 tubes of MI paste, with instructions to put it on and leave it on as long as I could. So by the time Gavin was 2, I was putting MI paste on at night after he fell asleep. Fast forward to now, Gavin is 3, and I took him to a new pediatric dentist a few months ago (our insurance changed and didn't cover my previous dentist, who had recommended we see a pediatric one anyway). The ped dentist, upon seeing Gavin for the first time, and not knowing anything about our use of xylitol, frequent brushing, MI paste, etc, said she wanted to extract 4 teeth. I actually cried in her office I was so stunned! I could tell (as his mom) that some of his affected teeth had gotten better and my husband and I really thought we had made some progress with remineralization.
The very next thing I did was read up more on Healozone, and search for a Healozone dentist. Yesterday we had our first visit with Dr. Keith Hollander in PA, and it was fabulous. His office staff is amazing, with kids and their parents, and I believe him to be extremely smart & knowledgeable, kind, compassionate, patient, and very thorough. I spoke before of all the things we had been doing (for almost 2 yrs now) with my child to improve his teeth; Gavin has 8+ teeth which suffer from extensive childhood caries (ECC). Dr. Hollander showed me exactly what good our protocol had done--a lot! Most areas are remineralizing, they are hard. There is an area of active decay too though, and some spots which were in-between. He discussed what updates to make to our routine, scraped my 3 year olds problem areas, drilled a bit, and applied Healozone, as well as flouride varnishes. My kids loved the experience, which I know sounds crazy, and I'm not even exaggerating (I brought my oldest to see him too, even though he does not have ECC). The entire day, we were in the car for over 4 1/2 hours, but it was totally worth it. I've read a bit about others Healozone experiences, but my son did not cough at all, and wasn't the least bit upset, no tears, he was very calm and aware of what was going on (he'll be 4 in Sept), he even sat in the chair by himself. A little of that I'm sure is my sons nature, but mostly I believe it was telling of the positive, genuine feeling in Dr. Hollanders office. I could tell my kids trusted him.
Right now Dr. Hollander felt fine with not doing any additional invasive things but to continue our protocol + healozone treatments--Gavin doesn't have any infected roots, has never had an abscess or any tooth pain, and is showing positive results with remineralizing. In all this process, I think I've learned--and which Dr. Hollander explains very, very well--is how dentistry can move in a new direction, that of restoring teeth, using noninvasive methods to control decay (vs. immediately getting it out w/ drilling/filling), and utilizing dietary and routine measures to remineralize, so most importantly, the teeth stay put!!
HTH. I'll update in a few months if I can with our progress after the healozone.
Sande
PS--here is our dental/diet protocol:
+ Brush 3x/day (most importantly after each meal, and always after sugary treats, which we have not eliminated.) We just bought a sonicare toothbrush and the kids are having a ball with it--they call it the tickle toothbrush!
+ Use powdered xylitol to brush or Squiggle toothpaste
+ Flouride rinse 2x/day (just started this recently)
+ Xylichew gum as often as they want
+ xylitol granules in place of sugar in foods (in moderation)
+ flossing
+ MI paste which I apply after my son falls asleep for the night
+ we plan to add in xylitol mints/candies
+ We have pretty much eliminated raisins or other small dried fruit.
+ Cod liver oil/butter oil supplement
+ Weston Price diet (including lots and lots of raw milk)
