His Milk Teeth Have Cavities!

My daughter had the same thing. Do not leave the problem alone, take him to the dentist. If you think it will be painful now, wait until the teeth rot down to black buds, that is more painful. My daughter had 4 root canals and caps put on her 4 front teeth. They give you liquid valium the night before and the morning of the procedure, bless their hearts they are so out of it, they are like limp spaghetti. Don't let the cavity get any bigger.

HI,
Does your little guy (or has he ever) gone to bed with a bottle? The sugars in milk and juice can cause decay. I don't know what else could cause it.Regardless, the best pediatric dentist I know is Dr. George Adams. He si very sensitive to the fear and pain a young child experiences.
Good luck.
J.

Dear H.,

Several moms have given you good things to think about - not giving him a bottle at night (he should be on a sippy cup now with no more bottles) and only water at night after brushing teeth. Finding out if he's missing some important nutrition that would cause his teeth to break. A pediatric dentist is very important too now - find someone through personal referals if you can. Is there flouride in the water where you live? We always had to have flouride supplements - believe me, it makes a huge difference to your child's teeth if they don't get flouride - you're just asking for multiple cavities, so make sure that you have flouride in your water supply.

You need to be proactive now to find a real reason for your son's teeth issues. Baby teeth aren't all that's up in that little mouth. His adult teeth are forming and you need to figure this out. Go to an endocrinologist if you can't get an answer from your child's dentist. Don't wait. Good luck!

My thoughts are about the dentist experience. I wish I had a cure all for the cavities, but I do not. I have a 9 year old, 5 year old, and 20 month old. My older girls have always done well at the dentist (only one cavity and we did not get it until last year - so they were older). They both went with me to my dentist and watched me, then sat in the chair just to show the dentist their teeth. Our dentist problems started with my son (20 months). He fell on a cazoo - broke a tooth and tore up his gums, and the roof of his mouth. He was 14 months. We were blessed to be sent to a pediatric dentist. She is sooooo good with him. I thought he would be tramatized for life about going to the dentist, after the initial visit, x-rays, shots, the whole nine yards! We went back the next week for a check up. He was cautious, but very interested in talking to the dentist. He would watch her move around the room (it was an open room with all the patients together), but did what was asked of him, like opening his mouth, laying down, etc... My advice to you is to find a great dentist. Look around. Find one great for kids. Also, remember these are the baby teeth. They will fall out, so hopefully you can get the cavities figured out now. Good luck.

sugar is a huge problem...and it is in everything! i remember in the hospital how the nurses wanted to give the baby sugar water?!?!

seek out some alternative medicine and find a way to boost his nutrition for the teeth. i can image how worried you are, but this can be a blessing. clean up his food...that means cleaning up your food....no fast food, fried food, less meat...more fresh organic veggies...do it and yo uwill see fast results...better than the drill, the effort it will take to change your habit. its all good.
ninabe

I worked as a dental assistant/tech. for over twenty-two years, and you should not think of the dentist and pain in the same way. You should bring your son to the dentist early on so he has know fear, and could avoid any discomfort later on. If you truely noticed a cavity then it might be painful to your son now, don't be afraid to call a pediatric dentist who specializes in young children. Their first experience should be positive. And you should stress all of your concerns to the dentist. You should if you don't already have a brushing teeth routine with your son, it is never to soon. Even before teeth are present it is important to keep the mouth clean by using a wash cloth to wipe the gums. Hope I helped.

Definitely see a pediatric dentist. Not only are they the most well trained to deal with young patients but they are also the most learned about young patient issues (ie. milk teeth, growth & development).

Cavities are different than breaking teeth. From what you wrote, I am confused as to what exactly you are noticing so it is hard to give advice.

Several things to think about:
1. diet (too many sweets, not enough vegetables & minerals)
2. diabetes (breaking teeth)
3. genetics (does anyone else in your families have really bad teeth?)
4. are you giving him soda or bottles of milk at night before he goes to bed? From what I hear this is the ultimate no-no since once a child fall's asleep, their saliva production to rinse the mouth stops and whatever sugar is present just creates a wonderful environment for bacteria to grow and induce cavities.

just some thoughts. your post wasn't specific enough but perhaps these can give some directions to go in and do more research.

One of my kids has terrible teeth. I took her to a pediatric dentist and they had to give her gas in order to do the work, but it needed to be done. Definitely go to a pediatric dentist. Btw, I LOVE the name Conan. That's great!

What other symptoms might he be having? The reason I ask is because I have a child with celiac disease(or coeliac if you live in the UK) an autoimmune disease where the body can not tolerate gluten, a natural protein found in wheat, rye, oats or barley(malt). In small children, this often shows up in bad teeth, weak enamel, breaking teeth, yellow teeth, just overall bad teeth. My mil has this disease and her dentist told her that if he didn't know her & how well she takes care of her teeth, he'd swear she never lifted a toothbrush to her mouth her teeth were so bad.

It is an inherited disease, not one you can catch by contact, and while there is no cure or medication, there is treatment, a gluten-free diet. Not as impossible as it sounds.

I just thought I would put that out there for you to consider. You can read more about this disease at http://csaceliacs.org/

Dear H.,

My youngest of three sons also had decaying teeth from the time they came in; that was over 30 years ago before the fluoride rinses were available on the shelf. Ask the dentist if it would be a good idea to brush his teeth with the children's Fluoride (ACT). This may not help the already existing cavities, but may prevent new cavities and also strengthen his teeth. My young son had to go into the hospital to have all his decayed teeth extracted. This was the only way we could deal with it as he was in so much pain from the cavities. Hopefully, your son's permanent teeth will be better. Make sure he isn't eating too much sugar and starches, etc. Your dentist should be able to tell you what will help his new teeth come in stronger. Perhaps he will need a calcium supplement.
Good luck
AJ

I would get him checked by his regular doctor, to check for some kind of nutrient deficiency or something. I have heard of baby teeth getting cavities, but I've never heard of them spontaneously breaking.

Make sure he is not chewing on hard items that are not made for babies. Children will continue chewing on things into being 3 so make sure he has soft teething type items only. You may have to put some things out of his reach and make sure he is supervised so the wrong things don't go in his mouth.
Talk to his pediatrician. There may be a deficiency that he needs to be checked for and he may need to be on a vitamin of some sort that promotes tooth health/strength.

You may also want to change dentists. A pediatric dentist should have noticed if there was an issue and suggested treatment.

My mom always said baby teeth must stay healthy so the adult teeth come in healthy.

Good luck!
MJ

get him to the dentist for professional advise. He is quite young to have teeth that are that brittle that they break. Until you get to the dentist, brush his teeth before bed time. Give water at nights. Dilute fruit juices. Absolutely no candy!

Hi H., I am a dental assistant with a one year old. It is very important to keep baby teeth as long as possible as they are the guides for his permanent teeth when they come in. If they come out too soon the new teeth will not come in where they need to and this can cause a world of issues. Also, he will have a lifetime of dental visits even with great teeth so now is the time to show him he will be ok and is a big boy. As far as preventing decay at this age-brush and avoid sugar, acids and soda. Many dentist will give you something to partialy sedated him like Noctec. It just relaxes him so he has a great experience. I know this is hard but when he has these teeth treated it is best if you are not n the room as he will feel your anxiety and think mommy here holdng my hand like this?" "Is something really bad going to happen?". If you have a doctor who you trust let them do there thing and when your little boy comes out make a huge deal about how proud you are of him. He will feel so good.
Hope this was helpful.
V.

Both of my daughters had the same condition.One Dentist told us it was be cause they were on the bottle to long(I breast fed)Another told me it was because I didn't brush there teeth after each feeding.Another said they had no enanmel on there baby teeth,All I know is that it cost me 3000 dollars to have my oldest daughters teeth repaired and another 4000 for my youngest and this was back in the 70's.I know I'm glad I spent the money as both of my daughters now have the most beautiful peramant teeth.

My brother had cavities in all of his first teeth because my mom's breast milk didn't have much calcium and he was intolerant of many formulas and in general just didn't get enough calcium. That would be my only guess to why he has so many dental problems at this age, it could have even been inutero where calcium didn't transfer properly because they are born with the teeth buds already I do believe. Good Luck, my brothers second set of teeth are great, strong, much better than mine,

Make sure he has clean teeth when he is going to bed. Be sure he has enough calcium in his diet, food is the best way to get it. Talk to your dentist about prevention methods for his permanent teeth. This could have started before the teeth even began to show. Remember, what we eat we pass on through gestation and nursing. Plus if he was taking in something that looked OK, but on the label had a lot more sugar than you noticed, that baby food, or supplement may be the culprit. Even natural sugars, if given too much, can hurt. There is nothing you can do about these, but be proactive for the permanent ones when they come in.

#1, find a pediatric dentist. Of course I live in KY and I take my little boy to Pediatric Dentistry of Lexington and they are super super good with him and kids in general. When he had to have dental work they gave him a mild sedation. I was worried at first because he had never been sedated, but he came through it just fine. I would recommend it to anyone. You never want him to fear a dentist.
Good Luck,
J.

You titled this "his milk teeth" but in the body you didn't say anything about milk. Do you think that the milk is causing it? One thing my dr told me a long long long time ago is NEVER EVER EVER give your baby a bottle in the bed or let him go to sleep with the milk on their teeth for the same reason that you are having.
If that is not the case, it sounds like your son may have a lack of calcium. Are you giving him vitamin? I would make sure that I do that for sure.
Other than that. I don't have a clue as to why they are doing that. I would just go to the dentist and tell the dentist to put him to sleep when he works on them because he is so little.
Sorry you are having this trouble. Let me know what you find out.

My sister had similar problems with her son. The denist told her he had inherited something in the soliva that damages the teeth. You might ask the denist if you can put sealant on them to help with this problem. They usualy dont seal them until the adult teeth come in.