3 Year Old Has Extensive Tooth Decay - Anyone Else Identify? & Ped. Dentist Rec

Updated on March 22, 2013
J.A. asks from La Crescenta, CA
6 answers

My toddler has extensive tooth decay from extended round the clock breastfeeding when she had an aversion to formula, bottles, syringe feeding, etc. I would like to hear from any other mama who dealt with toddler tooth decay. Did you do anesthesia? Whom did you do it with? Any recs. would be helpful.

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So What Happened?

I cannot thank each of you enough below for taking the time to write to my post. We ended up doing surgery under general anesthesia (she actually got an abscess from us waiting to make sure she was at least the minimum weight). Like a lot of you, we don't give candy or sweets. The only this was frequent night nursing that all the dentists we went to said contributed.

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J.S.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hi. I sent you a PM but forgot to add its nonsense that its from nursing. Utter nonsense. It may be enamel hypo plasia.
The goal is to keep the teeth in the mouth as long as you can without capping and NO metal alloy in the mouth.

Updated

Hi. I sent you a PM but forgot to add its nonsense that its from nursing. Utter nonsense. It may be enamel hypo plasia.
The goal is to keep the teeth in the mouth as long as you can without capping and NO metal alloy in the mouth.

1 mom found this helpful

C.M.

answers from Los Angeles on

By nine months my son had what looked like a thick line across his two upper front teeth and one next to it. At 2 and half he had three baby root canals and caps put on the three teeth. We decided against anesthesia so they "papoosed" him and gave him novacaine. It was horrible. He screamed and struggled the entire time. He hated dentists until he was 12 or so. It was a bad decision and one I regret. At three or four my daughter need a couple of fillings. This time we had her put under. It went quickly and with no problems.

Also we had my son's teeth done at Smile Care. Don't use them. They didn't do the root canals properly nor did they set the caps properly. The caps had to be replace several times because he bit through them. They finally said they would put metal ones on which I was against.

I went to another pediatric dentist, Dr. Halleh Shaheedy in Woodland Hills, who was wonderful. She redid the root canals (under anesthesia) and properly attached the caps when he was 4. They were fine until his permanent teeth came in.

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V.C.

answers from San Diego on

One of my 3 girls had tooth decay--but it's NOT from breastfeeding! My brother had the same thing & my step-mom didn't breastfeed him. They took him to the denist, back in the 1960s & had his teeth encased in silver to protect what little tooth enamel he had left. My other 2 girls had NO issues with tooth decay. ALL three nursed all night for 2-3 years. Some people are just born without tooth enamel or with very little enamel. And clearly it's hereditary, not related to whether or not you breastfeed! Our denist had me give my daughter flouride pills, brush & use a flouride rinse. When her little stubby baby teeth fell out, he put sealants on each of her adult teeth & she is fine. No cavitites, either! Good Luck!

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M.N.

answers from Los Angeles on

I just went through this with my 3 year old son. He had a ton of cavities to fill and after attempting to do them with nitrous oxide (he REFUSED to wear the mask) we ended up going the general anesthesia route. When a little guy has extensive work to get done I think this is the way to go - we were able to get all the fillings done in one visit rather than three and he remembers nothing. (It was expensive however and few insurance plans will cover anesthesia). We went to Dr. Janelle Holden in Manhattan Beach. Each dentist will have their own anesthesiologist that they use so you don't really get to pick that side of things. If you'd like to chat about it please feel free to send me a message directly.

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L.O.

answers from San Francisco on

When my daughter was 4 she had 8 cavities (between all her molars). We didn't floss very often, but they dentist sad that alone couln't cause it, they think it was gummy vitamins and raisins. She needed 8 crowns and a root canal. She had it done by a pediatric oral surgen under general anesthesia. She has 8 silver teeth, but is now 7 and has not had another cavity (we switched to Flintstone vitamins and she doesn't eat raisins or chewy candy).

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L.C.

answers from Los Angeles on

We also go to Dr. Haleh Shaheedy. My son loves her. When my brother moved to LA I had him take my nieces to her too. My niece had a similar problem with lots of cavities and decay - she was about 5 when she first went to Dr. Shaheedy and she had to have crowns put on a couple of her baby teeth. I think she did the gas that first time. But we had the option of a shot as well. See what your pediatrician thinks since your daughter is so young. But it's worth the drive to Dr. Shaheedy if you are able to get to Encino. Good luck.

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