White spots on his teeth

[Heavenly]

My 2.5 year old has white, different color of white than his teeth, spots on his teeth. Is this the beginning of a cavity? I am not nursing him now but he is still attached to his bottle and has one before bed (in his rocking chair with mommy or daddy). We usually brush his teeth before the bottle so he does have the milk on his teeth all night. Should we stop this? I really dont want to force him to wean. Should I be worried?

[malamamama]

You might want to read a thread called
"Remineralization and diet for healthy teeth".
I found it by typing in "diet" in the search window.
Also another one is
"Told to Wean/dentist/Mom's opinion and BF/Dental Caries"".

I believe the white spots indicate the decalcification of the teeth which leads to decay.

Is it bm in the bottle or?.....regardless....
It certainly would be better to either brush his teeth AFTER the bottle or at least wipe his teeth if brushing would upset the calm....or...
if it would work, give him the milk before brushing and then put water in the bottle for the "rocker time."

If it is indeed bm in the bottle, then you will find plenty of support for continuing. As Smilemomma says, "weaning is not the answer to dental problems"

There is a lot in those archives, so if you need some help finding specifics, I might be able to point you in the direction. I just recently read a massive amount in dealing with my dd's dental problems. The two that I suggested are a good place to start.

So in answer to your last question....
Worried, no.....concerned, yes! (which of course you already are )
I believe if it is just white spots at this point then you can turn it around meaning that you can remineralize the teeth. If you haven't been to a dentist yet, you might want to think about making an appt. to see what's all going on......(any possible decay that is not obvious, and advice on those white spots, etc.)

[cinnamonamon]

Wow, this is so wierd... I've never been to this board, but someone suggested I look it up as I have questions re: fluoride. I was told by another mama here that giving fluoride drops can cause white spots on teeth.

hmmm... let me go & get the url for my thread so you can see her exact wording - I'll edit this in a minute.


Sofiamomma said it:

http://216.92.20.151/discussions/sho...threadid=77781

[malamamama]

Cinnamon Girl,
This board has an amazing amount of info about teeth and everything associated with them! Smilemomma is incredibly knowledgeble and a very compassionate dentist.

Start with looking at this archived thread. It will give a lot of info about flouride. Then there is a thread called "flouride?"

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...0&pagenumber=1

I checked out the other thread...it was Mamabeth who said that about the flouride drops. Actually it was her DOCTOR who gave her the info....(btw, most peds know NOTHING about the teeth : )....Flouride IS naturally occurring in breastmilk. Check it out, Smilemomma talks about it in her post dated 12-10-2001. She also states that infants teeth are often streaked white which is natural.

But as I remember reading, too much flouride causes dark stains on the teeth.

There are several other threads on flouride if you do a search, but I found the above link "loaded"!

Happy Reading

[cinnamonamon]

malamamama -- thanks!! I'm in about the 3rd page of the fluoride archived thread right now, lol. Thanks for the correction -- sleep deprivation really does things to your intelligence level. I do love this board & everyone on it!

[malamamama]

No worries Cinnamonamon!
I'm not even sleep deprived and didn't get your board name right!!!! :LOL