does irregular brushing guarantee cavities?

[**guest**]

we started brushing DS's teeth when he was 2, (before that he only sucked on the flavoured toothpaste) and even now, at 2 years 8 months, we are not very consistent.

he started holding fingers in his mouth, and i'm worried about his teeth, but nothing observable.

we don't have a dentist in town, and we would need to travel to Ottawa to see a dentist (thousands of dollars for the airfare)...

i feel like a failure with not brushing consistently...

[Ruthla]

I think dental health is a crapshoot. Some kids have strong teeth and do fine without brushing. Some kids have lousy teeth that will decay no matter what you do, but careful dental hygeine can minimize the decay. Some kids have "in between" teeth and good dental hygeine makes the difference between healthy and unhealthy teeth.

Brushing isn't the only thing that affects tooth health. Diet is probably even more important- diets low in refined carbs and high in vitamins and minerals make for healthy bodies and healthy teeth.

[**guest**]

thanks. DD has "precavity" spots on her front teeth, which the dentist said had nothing to do with brushing, but it looked like she had those several weak spots, which usually form before birth. so we were very very diligent to brush. the rest of her teeth have been great, and the spots are still the spots, not true cavities.

but we somehow been laxer with DS...

i'm worried abouot him holding fingers in his mouth, but this could be a number of other things, of course. his diet is pretty good.

[Justmee]

I was like you with my twins. I took them to the dentist when they were 3.5. One had 2 cavities and one didn't have any (or any weak spots or anything). The one with 2 cavities wasn't complaining and at first I felt pretty bad, but then I realized both kids ate basically the same diet, were brushed at the same time, etc, so obviously it is genetic that one has better teeth than the other. My 2yo went to the dentist last week and she had no cavities or weak spots.

FWIW, I'm not the best or most consistant brusher : and I didn't have any cavities until I was an adult, and even then it was only in my wisdom teeth that the dentist said were positioned badly and couldn't have been brushed properly anyway.

[newbymom05]

[QUOTE=Ruthla;9264473]I think dental health is a crapshoot. Some kids have strong teeth and do fine without brushing. Some kids have lousy teeth that will decay no matter what you do, but careful dental hygeine can minimize the decay. Some kids have "in between" teeth and good dental hygeine makes the difference between healthy and unhealthy teeth.
QUOTE]

I so agree with this. Our DS had a cavity before he was even a year old--minimal solids, NO sugar, no juice, blah blah blah. Anyway, it seems a lot of LOs w/ tooth problems quickly progress and worsen, but we've managed to put ours in remission (fingers crossed!!) by using Spry, and then a tiny bit of Tom's of Maine for Kids w/ fluoride and MI Paste nightly. I know many people are against fluoride, esp in LOs, but we really think it's what's done the trick for us. Look online for MI Paste/Recaldent--I think that's helped a lot too.

I don't know about the brushing. We never brushed ds until we found the decay, and by then of course it was too late. We've improved (but we're not brushing after every meal/snack for sure) and as I wrote, his teeth are fine.

[amma!]

well we also did irregular brushing until suddenly we saw a brown spot on dd's front tooth. then we tried to be more regular but didnt use fluoride toothpaste until we got the bad news from the dentist. in spite of excellent diet and hardly any junk food ever, dd had cavities in all of her molars PLUS the front tooth that we saw. i can only hope that consistent brushing would have prevented this - because i hope brushing will prevent future cavities on these as well as her adult teeth. we are now brushing 2-3 times a day and water-washing when we can't brush after a snack if we are out. we also try to keep those snacks to fresh fruit / veg.

otoh i know my sister was not a great brusher and had no cavities as a child. she got one recently though.

[spearso]

oh boy...

I hope not! It's a real struggle to brush my son's teeth (just turned 2), we've only recently started doing it daily... he at least lets me start now, then I let him finish.

susie

[earthmama369]

I had an excellent whole foods diet as a child, no fluoride, and went through several major stages where I wouldn't let anyone brush my teeth -- for up to a WEEK at a time. This was on and off until I was nearly 9. I have no cavities.

DD is not quite 3, has an excellent whole foods diet, no fluoride, and we brush diligently at least once a day, plus flossing. And she already has two noticeable spots of decay on her front teeth near the gumline, just like dh did as a child.

I think genetics plays a pretty strong role.

[Nora'sMama]

I read somewhere, probably through a link from this forum, that you can think of dental health as a triangle. One vertex of the triangle is hygiene. One is genetics. And one is the flora of your mouth, which you can affect with hygiene...but some people are just going to have more "corrosive" mouth environments no matter what they do.

It makes sense to me. I do try to be very consistent w/ my dd's teeth b/c mine are so darn bad and so are DH's...I think she already has a strike against her teeth on the "genetic" end and maybe on the flora end as well, since we kiss her and share food etc. So we do as well as possible with the hygiene and hope for the best. We will be taking her for her first dental appt. when she is around 3...I know many people take their kids earlier, but this is when my dentist (who we really like) takes kids.

[Nora'sMama]

Oh! A tip for those whose dc do not tolerate brushing well.

Spiffies toothwipes. I think it's spiffies.com. They are made with xylitol (all-natural!). It is good stuff, helps prevent cavities w/out fluoride. We used them on dd's teeth for a while before we started brushing. They also sell finger-brushes and xylitol gum for adults to chew. Dd *loved* the flavors of the wipes and would just kind of chew on them to get the flavor out, cleaning her teeth and gums somewhat in the process. Probably not ideal but I think it's a good product for the brushing-resistant.

(She still is not crazy about brushing but we let her do it herself, remind her of all the different surfaces, and then we quickly get in there and do a little more if she doesn't brush well-enough. We also sometimes sing the Raffi teeth brushing song or brush along with her.)