[toraji]

WTF???? Your dentist told you NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT 7 months ago???? OMG I am so angry right now. It's so much easier to fix when you catch it early.

You have a few choices right now. One is to go with the hospital/GA route. The non-surgical option is to make radical changes to your diet and start doing topical treatments. The most sure-fire bet is to use fluoride toothpaste as often as you can, like 7x a day (this is what we did, plus topical fluoride/iodine treatments at the ped. dentist office). You don't have to brush every time, you can just put a dab (size of a grain of rice) on your finger and wipe it on their teeth. The point is to apply the fluoride to the decay. We were able to kill the cavities and now she is old enough and comfortable enough to just sit in the chair at the dentist's to get it cosmetically fixed. But your DD's decay may be so far progressed that it may be into the pulp, and you will need to get a pulpotomy/pulpectomy, which may mean the hospital route. Get to a ped. dentist and cross your fingers that it's not that far progressed.

Other people have reported progress using diet change and topical xylitol gel. I have no personal experience with this though.

Here are some helpful links for you:
Fluoride debate: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=282787
Remineralizing cavities: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=276453
Arresting decay with topical treatment/using decay color as indicator of progress: http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=282442

HTH! and GOOD LUCK!

 

[toraji]

*hugs to you*
Depending on your DD's personality, she may actually be able to sit willingly at the dentist's office to get it fixed. My DD had come from another dentist where we restrained her (in order to avoid GA) but that was a terrible mistake and I wish I'd done the GA instead. Then I found this new dentist who I totally love and absolutely does not force any dental work on the children. So hopefully you can find a ped dentist in your area who has a similar gentle approach.

I risked the swallowing of the fluoride toothpaste because I felt it was better than the alternative (continuing decay). As long as you use a teeny tiny amount (the size of a grain of rice) then swallowing is minimized.

Black color is actually a good thing, it means that the decay is dead. One of the threads I linked to above talks about it.

Bad teeth are due to poor nutritional status, which can be passed on through the generations. So most likely if you have a history of poor teeth, then you and your children will have problems as well.

If you can stabilize the decay and change your diet, then you decrease the risk of abscess. The teeth will still be sharp (makes for some pretty painful breastfeeding) but you may prefer that over GA.

HTH!