Connected or coincidence?

[ann_of_loxley]

My son is four and has a cavity. We choose to live consensually and I am not
about to force him into getting that fixed and neither is our dentist (they want
children to have good memories of the dentists! lol).

At this point - our only option is a general anesthetic - which imo is a bit
overboard and something I am not comfortable with doing for one tiny little
cavity (the rest of his teeth are great!).

He has a pretty good diet. We do avoid flouride but use xylitol a lot in foods
and it is in his toothpaste, etc.

The tooth is casuing him pain though. The only slight annoyance with this is
that here is no like...consistancy with it. It just pops up here and there. We
are using homeopathic remedies and grapefruit seed extract for this. Besides
being able to tell there is a cavity in the tooth, his gums, cheek, rest of his
mouth look fine - like, they don't look infected or swollen or anything.

What I dont understand and get is - the dentist was planning on treating this
cavity (drilling it out and filling it up) without any pain relief! (not that
you could easily stick a huge giant needle in a small childs mouth anyhow!
lol)....They said he would not be able to feel it as baby teeth have no roots.
But if that is the case - why is it causing him pain then?!?!?!

So here is the 'connected of coincidence' question... Twice so far when,
apparently, his tooth pain has been so bad - he has had diarreah and has thrown
up (not a lot - usually just once or twice and then he is fine).....Amazingly,
after that - his tooth pain is no more either. So is it really his tooth that
is causing him pain, or does he have a bug? - or both?! Is he throwing up
because his tooth is causing him so much pain - or are they completly seperate
things?

In one hand, I feel they are 'connected'. Makes sense to me I guess (extreme
pain = vomit). But in the other, I think they are just coincidence and 'my
tooth hurts' is the way he is trying to tell me that really his tummy hurts (as
well?) and he is feeling pretty crap right now - because both times that this
has happened so far there has been a tummy/sickness bug going around. (we home
educate but I nanny for schooled children so we both get a lot of exposure)...

Now I am currently pregnant and I know what they say - immune system down when
pregnant - but that doesn't seem to be the case for me at all. I never get ill
when pregnant whilst otherwise I am ill quite often actually (usually sinus
infections every other month and whatever else gets me when I am down with that!
lol)...but even other things like 'tummy bugs' don't seem to touch me when I am
pregnant (not complaining! lol) - so I can't really know for sure if it is
connected to this tooth pain or if it is just coincidence. As I said - his
mouth isn't swollen and doesn't look infected and he doesn't have a temp either.
The dentist gave us 'antibiotics' for his tooth (guess they figured if it was
actually causing him pain, it has more to do with being 'infected' than actual
pain from the cavity - cause they said baby teeth don't have roots and he won't
be able to feel it right?!)...but there is really no infection there - I give
plenty of inspections through brushing and flossing! lol...(and I threw those
away anyhow - no thanks to antibiotis and actually, since hes has thrown up,
last thing I would want to give him! lol)

I guess I am just looking for any insight/advice on this. (sorry its so long!)

[KimPM]

First of all, congratuations on your pregnancy! (I know you've been working on this for a long time.)

Second, it's possible your DS has both a slight illness and the tooth pain. Whenever my DS has any illness (even slight), everything else gets amplified (especially sensory-related things). So, it could be that because of a slight bug, he's feeling more pain. Once he gets rid of the worst of it (out either end), perhaps he feels better enough to not notice the pain anymore.

I think I'd be trying to get that cavity fixed, since it's causing him so much pain (even off and on). It would be different if it was a tiny one that caused no pain. But, I've never had experience with a children's dentist, so I wonder if anyone else here can chime in on their experience getting children's cavities filled.

[columbusmomma]

my DS had a cavity filled with just local anasthetic. I didn't even know he had a cavity until during a routine exam it was found. I would get it filled so the cavity doesn't progress into the nerve and a root canal is needed.

[JollyGG]

Originally Posted by ann_of_loxley

What I dont understand and get is - the dentist was planning on treating this
cavity (drilling it out and filling it up) without any pain relief! (not that
you could easily stick a huge giant needle in a small childs mouth anyhow!
lol)....They said he would not be able to feel it as baby teeth have no roots.
But if that is the case - why is it causing him pain then?!?!?!

Was he planning to drill it out and fill the cavity or was he planning to use a laser treatment and then fill it. My dentist does both. If you are planning to have it drilled out you need Novocaine. But he does not use it for the laser method. I have had it done with the Laser and the only discomfort was from holding my mouth open for a length of time and the annoying crackling of the laser. And I certainly, have adult teeth with roots.

[KimPM]

I'm not so sure baby teeth don't have roots.

If you search on Google for "baby teeth roots" you will find this kind of answer...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_teeth
"The deciduous teeth will remain until the age of six."
"The erupting permanent teeth causes root resorption, where the permanent teeth push down on the roots of the deciduous teeth causing the roots to be dissolved and become absorbed by the forming permanent teeth."

and this...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...6164846AADveH2

Maybe you could seek another dentist's opinion, since this one doesn't seem to be giving you complete answers.

[LionessMom]

baby teeth certainly do have roots. when the adult teeth come down to push out the baby ones, they actually dissolve the roots. my 6yo is having pain from this right now. it actually hurts her and she is teething again (chewing on everything). if they didnt have roots they wouldnt be stuck in the jaw.

my DS had a cavity filled at a young age. he was ok but they did have to give him novocaine. i dont have any experience with the laser one.

however if your dentist is telling you that baby teeth dont have roots and cant feel pain, then i would find a new dentist. he doesnt sound all that smart.

if the pain is severe enough you can have nausea and vomiting. the only time i had pain that bad was with an infection.

[New_Natural_Mom]

Check out the dental forum. There are natural ways to treat cavities. Oil pulling and calcium bentonite clay packs can heal teeth so that fillings fall out b/c the tooth becomes healthy again. I do this and it is helping "grow back" my receding gums.

[tessie]

I would absolutely have it treated if it's causing pain.

I had a cavity filled at not much older and didn't have any pain relief. Strangely I didn't require pain relief until I reached adulthood. My mum doesn't have pain relief for any dental work, not even for root canals. (Not that I'd suggest a child didn't have pain relief.)

[BellinghamCrunchie]

Are you absolutely sure its not infected? That would be my first concern, since untreated that can be dangerous, and it can be hard to tell, really. Look for a tiny, tiny white pimple on his gums.

DD has had four teeth filled. Her first cavity was when she was 18 months old. I was originally not going to have the tooth filled, and was going to treat it by curing the cavity using information I found here on MDC. I did try for about 6 months but the cavity just kept getting worse. My naturopath at that time advised not having it fixed because it was just a baby tooth. And then my naturopath's nine year old son died from tooth decay which had led to heart infection. I was terrified. We had that cavity filled under general anesthesia when she was 2. Although I was terrified of the general anesthesia, DD did just fine, and was her normal self a few hours later.

The other 3 cavities were done by the dentist just scooping the bad parts out and filling with a temporary flouride paste. No novocaine or anything, and it took about 90 seconds. Since the decay hadn't progressed very far, they were able to be treated this way. The fix is just temporary but we hope it will hold until those baby teeth fall out naturally.