Toddler teeth discoloration?

[akbirdy]

My DS (2 years old) has discoloration on his front 4 teeth. It looks like there is a white line a little under the gum line, and then some light yellow spots.... Any ideas what this is? My dentist said they don't see kids till their 4 ish....

I brush his teeth regularly, the toothpaste we were using had glycerin as the first ingredient... I saw on here someone said not to use it, not sure what is bad about it yet though?

I'm looking for a new good toothpaste for him and any other supportive measures I can take for dental care. What is MI paste?

[kaPOW!]

Well... it sounds like you should probably assume it's the beginning stages of decay. My son's started in very much the same manner.

[karen1968]

Yup, Sara's right, it sounds like the beginning of decay. My DS's teeth got that white line (some call it the White Lesion Stage, I think?), then a couple of weeks later, one of his teeth got a pit which was light brown or yellowish in color and became a line in less than a week. We have a great pedi-dentist here in Portland, and I got him an emergency appointment.

We are not fluoride-averse, so we are brushing with Tom's For Kids with fluoride (4 times a day, or at least getting a tiny amount of toothpaste on his front teeth two or more times and brushing morning and night). We did a fluoride varnish at the dentist, and go back in two months for another.

Early Childhood Caries is caused by a bacteria combined with soft or missing enamel. Sugars feed the bacteria, so we have eliminated dried fruit (the only food he got that was on the dentist's bad list, which included juice, canned fruit, sugared cereals, sweetened yogurt, etc.). We have also decided to night wean based on some studies I found that show the frequency and duration of nursing sessions can have an impact (and babies who sleep with the nipple in their mouth are more likely to have caries). I carry Spiffies xylitol wipes for wiping down his teeth/mouth when we are away from home, and I encourage him to drink water after nursing and eating. Oh, and I've stopped sharing utensils with him

More ECC is scary and can move FAST. It seems like a lot, but it's been really easy to incorporate these changes into our routine.

I highly recommend finding a dentist who will see your child ASAP. Maybe try your tribal board for suggestions? Oh! And MI paste is prescribed by the dentist (and my dentist wouldn't prescribe it to use since we are OK with fluoride. He says they usually only prescribe to people who don't do fluoride.)

[kaPOW!]

FYI: It's easy to get MI paste over the internet. With or without fluoride. There's no reason to only use both, except the paste is spendy.

[karen1968]

Originally Posted by kaPOW!

FYI: It's easy to get MI paste over the internet. With or without fluoride. There's no reason to only use both, except the paste is spendy.

Interesting. That's not what I heard from the dentist. : he did say DS wasn't a candidate for the paste because of his age, plus we are using fluoride.

[kaPOW!]

Originally Posted by karen1968

Interesting. That's not what I heard from the dentist. : he did say DS wasn't a candidate for the paste because of his age, plus we are using fluoride.

I love the guy, but he's still a dentist. They all have their own take on things and limitations. He also doesn't know who weston price is or what Ozone treatment is, among a large number of other things. Many dentists recommend MI Paste to children younger than 2. There are a couple of good dentists on the alternativekidsteeth yahoo group who are really handy for quick questions and feedback. But, even they have limitations. IMO.

Um. Not to derail the thread. Sorry

[nancy926]

1) get some MI paste and either brush with it, or rub it on your DC's teeth after brushing at night. MI paste is much different from fluoride - it has calcium and phosphate in it, which is what the teeth need to remineralize (get stronger). it is spendy, but cheaper than fillings. You can get it on ebay. A dentist who says it's either/or, fluoride/MI paste, doesn't know what he's talking about, sorry. MI paste is new and some dentists may not "believe" in it or think that it works. From personal experience, it does work.

2) find a pediatric dentist!

[akbirdy]

Ok I'm buying some MI paste on ebay... is the non-plus the one without flouride?? There isn't specifics on the MIpaste site about this.. as far as I can see there is a MI paste and an MI paste PLUS...

I'm over feeling sorry for ourselves about this... I did go through a few panic moments thinking my son might have to get dental work done. Now I'm just trying to feel really positive about doing all I can do to stop and hopefully reverse damage. I've never given DS juice and he doesn't eat suger, at least other than fruit. I'm going to try and cut back on white carbs, get some swipes, mi paste and just keep reading!!

Thanks for all the info. This sucks... but it's nice to have people that have been there and can help a Momma out along the way.

[kaPOW!]

What a great attitude! I'm pretty sure the plus is the one with fluoride, as the one we use does not have fluoride and it doesn't say plus on it. Also, I don't know if you've looked into xylitol at all but I definitely have to mention it just in case you haven't. This forum is ripe with info on it, as are the internets. Good luck!

[akbirdy]

Oh yes, I've been using xylitol too!! I need to get those berry mints I keep hearing about! I've just been putting a mixture of it on his toothbrush and brushing w it or letting him suck on it.

Does anyone know anything about any supplements he might be missing in his food/ diet that could be contributing to this??

I just emailed Dr. harry, hope to get something back, his products look really great.

[karen1968]

There is a great thread called "Healing Cavities with Nutrition". It is an active thread and usually on the front page of the dental forum (I think there's also a "Cliff Notes" thread too, summarizing the LOOOOONG nutrition thread). It is focused on info from Weston Price, so if you aren't into that, it might be off-putting. But in general, people feel that high-vitamin Cod Liver Oil, lots of Vit A and D, and something called "butter oil" can do a lot to build healthy teeth and remineralize teeth with soft enamal and cavities. Oh, bone broths, too, for the added minerals.

We are just implementing some of this (not the butter oil, as it is not in our budget) but from reading the thread, it looks like others have had great success.

[akbirdy]

Great, I'll check it out. I started giving ds cod liver oil about a month ago for some skin problems, that's great to know it could also be helping his teeth!

[flowmom]

It sounds like your child has ECC, but still in early stages. I would jump on things quickly! MI paste is great, but you also have to stop the decay. MI paste has some non-great ingredients, but it can be used in tiny amounts applied with a qtip and left on for best effectiveness. You can buy it at dentist.net. IME, dentists know a lot about drill-n-fill but not much about anything else unless you find the rare gems out there. Here's our saga and what we did about it:

----
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. Half of the enamel has melted away on her lateral upper incisors. My first child is 4.5 yo and has no dental problems.

The fantastic news is that the decay is arresting and remineralization is starting! I am so thrilled! The dental assistant can tell because the decayed areas are smooth under the explorer instead of sticky. Also, the Diagnodent readings are much improved. We did a ton of stuff to deal with this for 2 months, but it wasn't really working. It was the HealOzone that turned it around, in combination with the other stuff that we are doing. The dental assistant said that we are getting much better results than are typical with the HealOzone because of the home care stuff.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to everyone who shared information with me about managing ECC.

This is what we did/are doing:

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:
---------------
* we've had the third of three HealOzone treatments

Remineralizing:
---------------
* 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 or we use it as a toothpaste
* 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:
-----
* 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) -- we've cut back on this during the summer though and we're using salmon oil instead
* 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
-------------
* 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 (we nightweaned when we started the HealOzone treatments)
* 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
-----
HealOzone:
http://www.ozonedentist.ca/treatment.php
Diagnodent:
http://www.kavousa.com/Default.aspx?...oid=009&lid=Us
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