15 month old with teeth problems HELP

[DecemberSun]

Ok, so my DD is 15 months old. Still nursing on demand and eats very well- lots of fruits and veggies, some meat, some cheese, mostly organic, etc. I made the mistake of giving her vanilla soy milk in a bottle (maybe 2 or 3 oz. every day, she carried it around with her), but we have since cut that out completely. She does not drink much cow's milk but loves water.

When she was about 11 months old I noticed that her new teeth, the ones next to her front teeth, had yellow spots on them. I tried brushing more frequently, but they continued to get worse. Now her front teeth have whitish spots, and the teeth next to them are actually split down the middle, like they have been eaten away. (Only her top 4 teeth are affected, the bottom 4 teeth are fine.) I took her to the dentist and of course they suggested crowns on all four front teeth. They also want to crimp some stainless steel caps on her new top molars that are only about ONE month old because they "had some decay". I should add that I did go to two different dentists to get opinions. The first dentist said the enamel on her teeth must not have formed correctly when I was pregnant with her, while the teeth were being made inside her gums. He said breastfeeding had ntohign to do with it, but he suggested surgery to apply the crowns. The second dentist said the cavities were caaused by nursing on demand, and he thought breastmilk was as bad for teeth as sugar water, and also suggested surgery.

I don't want to put my DD's health in jeopardy or anything, I don't want her teeth getting infected, and I definitely don't want any nerve damage to occur. Are crowns really necessary??? Obviously at her young age she would be put under general anesthesia for this surgery. : Should I wait it out and try to heal her teeth through diet changes, or go ahead and have the crowns put on? I feel so terribly guilty. I feel like my milk lacked sufficient nutrients for her to build stong teeth and now I can't go back in time... But I would like to fix her teeth any way that I can. She's only 15 months! I never thought I would have to worry about such bad tooth decay at such a young age, and I definitely don't like the idea of discolored crowns on my baby's pretty teeth, but... I don't know what to do. Any advice, suggestions, words of wisdom, experienc, etc. would be helpful. Please help...

[kwg]

well,I am no expert AT ALL. I asked my doc about the whitish spots on ds's teeth and she said it could be due to damage like when he fell, which he does all the time! she said it was no biggie b/c it was his baby teeth. I am looking forward to hearing what others say.....I have been trying not to worry.

[motherearthdancer]

we are in a similar situation. DS1 started having spots on his teeth when he was about 9-10 months old. I brought him to the dentist and they said he had like 3 carries already and recommended we get work done as soon as possible. I didn't want him to have work done when he was so little, and we didn't have the money to afford it at the time. I brought him back about a year later and the carries had doubled. Still we didn't have the money. Even if our insurance covered part of the surgury and we paid payments, we still couldn't afford the anastesia which had to be paid day of surgury and was at the least 780 $ and went up in incriments for every 15 mins after the 1st hour. We live paycheck to paycheck anyways, so when my husband lost his job and I got pregnant again, I felt terrible. My son is 3.5 now and I decided to get a 2nd opinion. I brought my husband along this time b/c he wasn't helping as much as I wouldv'e liked. (My dh drinks a lot of soda and eats a lot of junk and "allows" ds1 to "share") I think the seriousness of my ds1 teeth really hit dh and he's much better at making sure ds gets his teeth brushed. We are still struggling to get him back on a healthy diet, but its much better than before. Still we can't afford the surgury for the same reasons...anastesia.

Let us know how things turn out with you and your LO. I think its good to share our experiences so others here know they are not alone and we can learn from one anothers experiences.

[flowmom]

Sorry you are dealing with this. Here's some info about what we are doing:

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Dd (24 mo old) is my second child and she has severe Early Childhood Caries (ECC), with decay on 9/16 of her teeth. The decay is into the dentin in six of her teeth, but so far the pulp is not yet affected. My first child is 4.5 yo and has no dental problems.

This is what we are doing about it:

Professionals:
--------------
* searched for child-friendly dentists in the local Find Your Tribe thread on Mothering.com and in the alternativekidsteeth and veryyoungkidsteeth yahoogroups - we have found dentists who have made it fun and secure for dd

Stopping decay:
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* we've had the second of three HealOzone treatments

Remineralizing:
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* frequent cheese
* we are currently using the HealOzone/CurOzone remineralizing liquid between HealOzone treatments (contains a tiny amount of fluoride) applied via Qtip when dd is sleeping
* when we are not using the above liquid, we apply MI Paste (without fluoride) via Qtip while dd is sleeping
* frequent nori seaweed as a snack

Xylitol:
--------
* the whole family is getting 2 Spry Mints (Berryblast) 5x per day for a total of 10 per day (they do not taste like mint)

Diet:
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* stopped all dried fruit (dh was feeding it to her regularly before)
* cut back sugar treats (they were occasional before)
* reduced refined carbs (haven't stopped completely because sometimes we just need her to eat)
* increased meat and cheese (we had reduced our intake because of a serious health condition that dh has)
* increasing frequency of bone stock
* dd almost never had juice and still doesn't

Supplements:
------------
* high vitamin cod liver oil - dd takes 2 Natural Factors Super Cod Liver Oil capsules (400 IU of Vitamin D)
* X-Factor Gold High Vitamin Butter Oil supplements (I am taking 3 capsules per day and hoping she is getting it via my breastmilk)

Hygiene
-------
* brushing 2x per day using a Sonicare electric toothbrush with an ultracompact head
* in the morning we use Spry Infant Tooth Gel (sweet but otherwise tasteless)
* in the evening we use PerioPaste (minty, dd doesn't like it)
* when I have to force dd to brush her teeth (songs/games aren't working), I lie her down on the bed and I sit down with my legs in a "V", her head goes between my legs and I pin her arms under my legs - this is a gentle way of getting the job done as quickly as possible
* we watch a fun video after brushing

Breastfeeding
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* we are breastfeeding on demand from sunrise until bedtime
* we nightweaned ... although I do not believe that breastfeeding causes ECC, I have reluctantly concluded that once a child has ECC, nightnursing could contribute to making the decay worse
* dd is probably making up for the reduced nightnursing by nursing more in the morning

Our plan is to get dd's teeth treated ASAP if she starts to have any dental pain. We would go the GA route as I have safety concerns about in-office use of chloral hydrate as recommended by dd's dentist. I don't think that nitrous oxide would be enough for the amount of treatment that dd would require.

Ciao, Ksenia

Links
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HealOzone:
http://www.ozonedentist.ca/treatment.php
MI Paste (contains milk protein):
http://www.gcamerica.com/mipaste.html
internet source of MI Paste:
http://www.dentist.net/prospec-mipaste-recaldent.asp
local source of MI Paste:
http://www.vedderdental.ca/
Spry xylitol mints:
http://www.xlear.com/spry/dds/
Canadian source of Spry mints:
http://www.aviva.ca/shop/products.as...3924&catid=145
Spry Infant Tooth Gel:
http://www.dentist.net/spry-infant-tooth-gel.asp
PerioPaste:
http://www.bioprodental.com/PerioPaste.html
local source of PerioPaste:
http://www.naturesdesigndentalspa.com/
Natural Factors Super Cod Liver Oil:
http://tinyurl.com/2fcblm
X-Factor Gold™ High Vitamin Butter Oil
http://www.drrons.com/x-factor-butter-oil.htm
Canadian Source of X-Factor Gold™ High Vitamin Butter Oil:
http://www.familyherbalclinic.com/gp...st_May2008.pdf
Sonicare:
http://www.sonicare.com/brushes/default.asp
we bought our Sonicare at the local Shoppers Drug Mart, but ordered the ultracompact heads from dentist.net
Crawford the Cat toothbrushing video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdhptrhn2tM

[DecemberSun]

Thank You For The Info!!!