cavities on ENDS of upper front teeth, not along gumline. Anyone else have this?

[dot1]

my 11 month old has 3 upper teeth and 2 lower teeth. The 2 upper central incisors (1st came in at 8.5 months, the 2nd at 10 months) appear to have decay on the ENDS of the teeth. It actually looks like tooth chips. The "chipped" area is a light brownish-yellow colour (or almost off-white). You don't notice it unless you look closely, but it definitely looks like the enamel is disturbed.

One upper tooth seemed to get this "chip" after it was already in. The other upper tooth (central incisor) actually erupted with this brown area on it already. The bottom central incisor and upper lateral incisor appear fine.I don't think it is enamel hypoplasia.

She's otherwise very healthy and does not eat any refined sugar products or drink juice (we make most of our own baby food from whole grains and fruits/veggies, etc. I've started offering more hard cheese, which she loves and I've read it helps remineralize teeth).

For a while, she just had one upper and lower tooth (same side) and went through a period of grinding/clicking them lots during day! Is over that now

We still night nurse, but not till 3 am usually, and then are up around 6-630. However, around the time just before the 2nd the upper central incisor erupted, we had a period of night nursing as frequent as every 1-2 hours.

As soon as I discovered the cavities, I started brushing 2 X/day, making sure one was after last nursing of the evening.

We hadn't been very vigilant with toothbrushing as I didn't think decay could happen this early! I had been giving her her soft gummy toothbrush to chew on throughout the day thinking the saliva would clean things off.

So my questions are:
1. Anyone else have a similar experience? (decay on ends of teeth as opposed to the gumline) and

2. Were you able to prevent having to have dental work done, ie. stop or reverse the decay? If so, how? or

3. Did you need dental work? If so, any advice?

I'm kicking myself for not being more vigilant sooner.

Thanks!

[mellifluousmama]

We are having a similar experience with a tooth that dd(20 mo) did get chipped. it chipped off the back of the lower edge and it has now changed colour where enamel is missing.
dentist got a peek at it today, looking into how to proceed through a ped dentist now. i am choosing to have her specifically refered to the dentistry dept at vanc children's. we have experience with them and our other dd's teeth.

good luck

[dot1]

Thx mellifluousmama!

Hope you're app'ts go well.

It's sometimes hard to find pediatric dentists in our area. They're very hesitant to see kids under 3. I just came back from a visit to the public dental health nurse, who feels we'll need to see a dentist soon, once the teeth are more erupted (providing they'll see her so young). She painted fluoride varnish on and we're doing it again in a month, also so she can monitor more closely.

In case we end up needing any major work, how does one get referred to Vanc Children's dental dept? Are there any specific dentists you'd recommend? We could probably make a trip if it meant getting the best treatment.
Thx.

[haleyelianasmom]

DD had this, too. We first noticed that she had decay because she had a chip on her front tooth. We saw brown spots on the back and had temporary fillings put in, but now there's more decay on the center of her two top lateral incisors and on the tip of her un-chipped central incisor.

[Devaskyla]

ds2's did the same thing. it was eventually on all 4 top teeth at the front. we had them all pulled, it had gotten so bad that at least half of 3 teeth were gone & 3/4 of the fourth. Near the gum it was all fine, they were decaying slowly from the ends. Wish I could have found a way to deal with sooner, but we didn't see it until it was well advanced due to ds having a lip tie.

[haleyelianasmom]

Originally Posted by Devaskyla

it was well advanced due to ds having a lip tie.

I guess I'm not sure of what the lip frenulum is supposed to look like in young children, but dd's frenulum attaches much lower than mine or dh's... Though we've seen a few dentists and they've never said anything, nor has our doctor. Could that be a cause? Do they do anything about it?

[Devaskyla]

The dentist didn't actually say anything about it. I just know that I had a horrible time seeing his upper teeth. He was born with a very tight tongue tie, so it just made sense to me that his lip was tied too. His older brother didn't have this problem.

[runes]

definitely check out the following yahoo groups: veryyoungkidsteeth and alternativekidsteeth. there are a ton of nursing/ap mamas on there looking for and giving advice about this very thing.

i had 3 dentists tell me that dd's decay was because of extended nursing and especially night nursing. my research showed that this is not the case, as it does not look like typical nursing/bottle caries. sure enough, i found a wonderful holistic dentist who absolutely believes that she was born with an enamel defect.

which makes sense, because i had this when i was younger, too.

the 3 original dentists all wanted to put caps on her front teeth. 2 of them suggested in-office sedation, and the other wanted to do a full on general anesthesia at the children's hospital, with intubation etc etc.

no way am i going to jeopardize my child's life for the vanity of having 'perfect' pearly whites.

we are doing ozone treatments, which kill the bacteria that cause decay. non invasive, and quick, and also much less expensive. we've already seen some good results from the ozone and the decay has pretty much stopped. in the meantime we are still being very vigilant about diet (no raisins/fruit leathers, very limited crackers, very nutritious whole foods diet) and supplementing with cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil. we also brush with a xylitol toothpaste, she eats xylitol mints and gum, and use MI paste (which is a remineralizing paste...i got it off of ebay). i think that all of these things put together have helped to slow down if not completely stop the course of the decay.

hugs to you, mama. it's so difficult to deal with this and not feel guilty, but it serves no one to carry around those kinds of negative emotions.

[dot1]

Thx for such a helpful reply and encouragement, kidspiration. (and to the others for sharing experience). I agree the risk of Gen. anaesthesia outweighs the benefit of pearly whites...way to go with finding a tx. that is working for you!

I do now wonder about it being an enamel defect? - I had a fever late in pregnancy due to a bad flu. 11 mo. seems so early for caries....

I got MI paste from my dentist (Dr. Kuiper in Nelson in case anyone's lurking in this area) - just started 2nite. They recommended to put it on after she's asleep for best results. And I'm increasing Vit D supplementation. She's too young for gum/mints but good to know for later.

How old was your dd when you first noticed decay? Was it on the ends of the teeth as opposed to gumline? How bad was it? How old is she now? Thx!

[Novella]

Hi, our oldest daughter had the two front top teeth decay. The dentist said it was baby bottle mouth (yes, between 1yr-old and 2yr-old she went to bed with a bottle of milk). But her teeth didn't look like ANY photos of baby bottle mouth I've ever seen.

In our case, the decay started at the tips of the teeth. It just looked like the enamel was really weak and the tooth started to simply wear away from use. She has now lost one of those teeth and the other one will be out soon. By this time, they have worn down to about 25-30% of what's normally exposed from the gum. They have never caused her amy discomfort.

Our second daughter has one tooth that looks bad. It is the top tooth on her right side, to the immediate right of the two front teeth (getting all technical with my tooth names, eh?) The tooth started to discolor more at the bottom. It's now creamy-brownish over apx the bottom 2/3 of its face. It is not wearing away. All her other teeth look great.

I think a lot of it has to do with genetics. I've been told that my husband's family has crappy baby teeth and good adult teeth. I couldn't claim we'd been vigilant about health/diet/tooth brushing and flossing, but my sister-in-law sure was. She wanted to cry when their little guy got cavities in his front teeth.

[moneeleann]

My daughter's teeth are exactly the same way. Wearing away from the bottom, not the top. No black/dark brown spots like cavities. I was told she just didn't have any enamel there, and the teeth were eroding over time. I'm trying to halt it, but not much I can do. It hurts sometimes nursing, as they are pointy where it has eroded up the middle, but the sides are still there.

[lunapier]

Originally Posted by kidspiration

definitely check out the following yahoo groups: veryyoungkidsteeth and alternativekidsteeth. there are a ton of nursing/ap mamas on there looking for and giving advice about this very thing.

i had 3 dentists tell me that dd's decay was because of extended nursing and especially night nursing. my research showed that this is not the case, as it does not look like typical nursing/bottle caries. sure enough, i found a wonderful holistic dentist who absolutely believes that she was born with an enamel defect.

which makes sense, because i had this when i was younger, too.

the 3 original dentists all wanted to put caps on her front teeth. 2 of them suggested in-office sedation, and the other wanted to do a full on general anesthesia at the children's hospital, with intubation etc etc.

no way am i going to jeopardize my child's life for the vanity of having 'perfect' pearly whites.

we are doing ozone treatments, which kill the bacteria that cause decay. non invasive, and quick, and also much less expensive. we've already seen some good results from the ozone and the decay has pretty much stopped. in the meantime we are still being very vigilant about diet (no raisins/fruit leathers, very limited crackers, very nutritious whole foods diet) and supplementing with cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil. we also brush with a xylitol toothpaste, she eats xylitol mints and gum, and use MI paste (which is a remineralizing paste...i got it off of ebay). i think that all of these things put together have helped to slow down if not completely stop the course of the decay.

hugs to you, mama. it's so difficult to deal with this and not feel guilty, but it serves no one to carry around those kinds of negative emotions.

Thank you for posting this! This is helpful to me, as well.