flouride varnish to prevent further decay?

[clothdiapermama]

I'm posting here in hopes that some of you dentist mamas will reply with your thoughts (and anyone else who has researched this). Our DS is going in on Mon for GA to have 10 cavities filled (after much deliberation and prayer we feel this is our best option)

Dentist wants us to go in for flouride varnishes (different than the regular flouride treatment) to prevent further decay. He says that the teeth got so bad because of bacteria in the mouth and that it's very hard to get rid of this bacteria unless we do three of these varnishes in the next 2 months. I've never heard of flouride having an antibacterial property before - so am a bit skeptical. (I asked our pediatrician and he'd never heard of this either - but said we'd just have to trust our dentist if that's what we decide to do.) Won't most of the flouride be swallowed and be in the mouth for only a couple hours at most?

Are there any good websites that will give me info on flouride? (I used to not even use flouride until DS teeth started to decay - so I decided to try it - but the decay is still growing!)

This is so frustrating - after deciding to go through the GA we don't want the teeth to continue to decay - but I don't see how this will help.

[kaPOW!]

We do the fluoride varnishes on my son's teeth every two months (once every two). If he didn't have such extensive decay, we definitely wouldn't. But he does, and we do.

Anyway, the varnish stays on the teeth for at least half a day. It's very sticky. And I've heard that it's antibacterial as well. I've also heard that it's pretty common to use the varnishes after the procedures that you describe. Whether that's the best option, I don't know. But kids like ours have a high risk of redecay after the work is done because the bacteria is still in their mouth even with the decayed tooth portions removed. If I remember correctly, the year following surgery is the most critical period to be extra extra extra diligent with prevention efforts. I think that there are a number of options for controlling and killing the bacteria, and the fluoride varnish is probably the easiest-not necessarily the best. Look into it now, because you'll want to have some plan in place for after the procedure. The risk of redecay is pretty high if we just have the dental work done and then assume that things are a-ok. They're usually not.

Good luck!! We have our surgery in April. I hope you're able to come back and post about your experience, I'm sure it will go perfectly!!

[Doodadsmom]

I've heard of using xylitol as a natural substitue for fluoride...but I don't know much about it. Especially in a case like your DC's. I just thought I'd mention it in case you wanted to look into it.

[clothdiapermama]

We do use xylitol right now. In fact dentist said that wll really help once we get rid of the bacteria. But it hasn't helped prevent the bacteria from forming decay. Maybe because the bacteria was already present when we started the xylitol? I just don't know what to do! :

[Cassandra M.]

Recaldent or Novamin both contain remineralizing agents that can help repair the enamel that's damaged from decay.

Depending on your location and willingness to travel, you could possibly seek a dentist who does HealOzone and get a HealOzone treatment, and if they can pack in molars, there's a Fuji remineralizing cement that has worked wonders for us personally. There is flouride in that though....

[luv2bamommy2]

I've been advised to do that as well with my son's teeth, but have chosen not to because of the research my mom did on the Internet concerning fluoride PLUS the fact that my son's [3 yr old] dentist told me he believed his ECC was fluorosis-induced [in other words, brought on through swallowing fluoride toothpaste.

One of the site's my mom went on is the following link
http://www.scientificblogging.com/th...wo_conferences

Some of the articles written by this reporter really are scary in so far as fluoride is concerned, and they're well documented. The author is a fluoride expert with a degree in biology.

Anyway, this is a choice each individual parent or parents must make for themselves.

All of the minor cavities in TL's mouth have remineralized, the one large one he had has been 'arrested'. His four upper front teeth remain broken and crumbled, but they too are arrested. His present dentist does not want to extract them because he said when his permanent teeth come down he will have to 'cut' his gums for them to come down properly.

I'm trying to save my child trauma, not give him more. Hope this helps.