Kids cavities - need an opinion

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JLCecilia

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I took my kiddos for their checkups yesterday and here’s the scoop: the 8yo needs light drilling on baby teeth so sealant can be reapplied and get into the fissures better. The 6yo has FIVE cavities they want to fill! I AM FU-REAKED OUT! DH and I both have had to have extensive work done after not going to the dentist for years, but after DH got his first filling, he hasn’t gone back (prob 3 years or more). I let the dentist talk me into having fillings in all four quadrants, plus 2 caps. This is before I read about natural cavity healing/remineralization.

I guess I’m just wondering how safe it is to just say ‘not now.’ DS’s teeth don’t bother him, but I have no doubt that the cavities could get really bad before he ever has the slightest symptom. The dentist’s words were ‘he’s going to have these teeth for 6 more years.’

I want to buy Ramiel Nagel’s book Cure Tooth Decay and start my kids on FCLO (even though it’s expensive, we ALL need to be taking it for a variety of health reasons). Have any of you had experience in saying NO to dental procedures? I would LOVE to find a natural dentist, but I’d have to see if our dental policy covers them and then there’s the whole thing of taking a half day vacation every time we need to go to the dentist an hour away.

Thoughts?
 
Don’t do your “natural dentistry.”

Get a second opinion on the cavities from an actual dentist (if the job is very expensive) or (which I suspect will be cheaper) just go ahead and do the work on the kids if you have the money.

This is definitely worth asking your parents for help with. People have died before because of neglected dental work.

pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/health-science-technology/dollars-and-dentists/tragic-results-when-dental-care-is-out-of-reach/

I would not normally encourage borrowing money, but this is potentially a matter of life and death.
 
I have no idea what a “natural dentist” is, and would be wary of “natural cavity healing”, especially if it’s only something I read about and had no experience with.

Taking care of teeth is just as important as taking care of the rest of your body. Personally, there’s no way that I would gamble on any facet of my kid’s health and if the dentist is concerned, you should be too. Being lax about a child’s dental health also sets them up for problems with their adult teeth. Cavities also lead to gum disease, which can be serious and has also been linked to heart disease as well as diabetes.

I just don’t see it as being any different than neglecting another aspect of health care. It’s one thing to make decisions about your own health as an adult, but I think parents have a responsibility to keep their kids as healthy as is possible.
 
Thank you Monicad. Yes, me too - I don’t stand over my kids and watch their teeth cleaning skills. I’ve started my 8yo using an extra Sonicare that was given to us and I know I can trust him to brush the full 2 min till it turns off on its own. I think the biggest culprit is flossing. Probably too late at this point, but maybe creating the habit now will help prevent future problems.

I know the biggest culprit is our diet. I CANNOT wait for school to start so I can have more control over what they’re eating. I’m sure there will be the occasional birthday treat, but it won’t be a daily thing. I’ve been really slack and let the sitter feed them lunch and snacks every day and really not even asking what that is. If I were better, I’d just pack their lunch and snacks every day, no matter how they complain about what the ‘other kids’ get to eat.

I’ll have to ask the school when I enroll them next week, but I don’t see why they couldn’t take their toothbrushes and brush up after lunch each day. I have no doubt that kids with braces do this (I remember doing this in school).
 
I would absolutely go ahead with getting this taken care of. If you don’t like this dentist then get a 2nd opinion, but if this were my kids (and I do love my dentist) they would be getting this fixed ASAP. Oral health is nothing to mess around with and I wouldn’t be looking for untested natural remedies. I’d be wanting treatment that has been proven to be beneficial.

I’d also be asking why this is happening to the kids at such a young age and what can be done to prevent it in the future.
 
By the way, has the 6-year-old been 100% responsible for tooth brushing? It might be a good idea to brush that kid’s teeth for a while and give the kid a timer (dentist’s offices often give away little 2-minute sand timers for kids–we’ve gotten several) to make sure they don’t do the swipe-swipe-all-done method.

One of our kids turned out to have been lying to us about tooth brushing for several weeks (probably at 8 years of age, so even bigger than yours). We’d tell the kid to brush his teeth and he’d say he had, but he hadn’t. Oops. His 12-year-old big sister is a member of the swipe-swipe club, so she also needs to be sent back to the bathroom for an extra minute.

Even fairly big kids need a surprising amount of coaching on dental hygiene.

Your dentist may also recommend a fluoride rinse.
 
Another thought–do you live in the country and have well water?

I spent my early childhood on city water and then around 9, our family moved to the country and started well water. I was more or less OK, but my younger siblings’ teeth suffered terribly from the unfluoridated well water.
 
Nope, city water. In fact, I’m getting the heebie-jeebies about what must be going on w/ our water b/c even after I filter it, my drinking water smells like the pool. Bleh!
 
JLCecilia said:
Nope, city water. In fact, I’m getting the heebie-jeebies about what must be going on w/ our water b/c even after I filter it, my drinking water smells like the pool. Bleh!
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It’s possible that you’re filtering out the fluoride. You might want to check whether or not it does.
 
JLCecilia said:
but after DH got his first filling, he hasn’t gone back (prob 3 years or more).

…

Thoughts?
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If you ignore your teeth, eventually they’ll go away.

I went to the dentist every six months for almost 20 years, and still had to have massive, massive reconstruction of my teeth. It literally took two years go get it completed. It was hugely expensive, even with insurance coverage.

Some people have bad teeth no matter how well they care for them. HOWEVER, the long term consequences of giving up are very serious. Particularly since science has proven that the same bacteria that affect teeth can also affect the heart.
 
I had a dentist give me a huge estimate for work he said needed to be done to my daughters teeth. We didn’t have dental insurance and were broke so had to put it off. Soon after that, I took her to a dental hygiene school clinic to get cleanings done. The student did the x-rays and cleaning and all that and then a dentist came over and did an exam and gave a recommendation on what work she needed to have. He said it wasn’t necessary to have all that work done at the time, just take a “wait and see” approach. It was nice getting a second opinion from him because he had no financial incentive to recommend unnecessary work.

I recommend taking her to a dental school or dental hygiene clinic and see what recommendations they give you. At least you know they’re unbiased and aren’t just trying to take you for everything you have. Kwim? It’ll also save you a ton of money if you don’t have insurance!
 
Just FYI, this thread seems dangerously close to the “medical advice” category of conversation which is frowned upon here. :o
 
Joe_5859 said:
Just FYI, this thread seems dangerously close to the “medical advice” category of conversation which is frowned upon here. :o
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Nah, because we’re mostly encouraging her to trust the dentist/get a second opinion/find a cheaper dentist/etc. Nobody’s offering actual medical advice.
 
I read your first paragraph and was thinking, “These kids need some nutrient dense food, some FCLO and this parent needs to read Rami Nagel’s book,” but I see you already covered all that.

In that case, I’d get a second opinion, perhaps from a holistic dentist. Your dentist sounds very aggressive in treatment, but your personal style sounds less so. Perhaps you need to find a dentist that matches your philosophy more closely.

I have no cavities or fillings in my adult teeth. I did have several fillings in my baby teeth and I was a terrible patient as a child. When I was in grammar school, my dentist said I had 8 cavities that needed to be filled. I freaked out and we were asked not to return to that dentist, and referred to a children’s dentist who was willing to deal with difficult patients. He examined me, found no cavities (instead of 8), and life proceeded peacefully. Get a 2nd opinion. And please read up on that horribly dangerous poison fluoride. In our children these days, too much fluoride is more often the danger rather than too little.
 
Xantippe said:
Nah, because we’re mostly encouraging her to trust the dentist/get a second opinion/find a cheaper dentist/etc. Nobody’s offering actual medical advice.
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Perhaps I’m being overly paranoid. :o

I think a second opinion can be a good idea. I have experience both with dentists who seem so lax I can only conclude they just didn’t care for filling cavities and also with dentists who seemed more like used car salesmen trying to “upsell” me (“Are you sure you don’t want your wisdom teeth taken out? Really sure? Are you sure? It’s really no problem.” :rolleyes:).
 
PhiloMed said:
Oral health is nothing to mess around with and I wouldn’t be looking for untested natural remedies.
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Amen to that! Cavities can lead to infections which are nasty and can have long-term negative effects.
 
Joe_5859 said:
Just FYI, this thread seems dangerously close to the “medical advice” category of conversation which is frowned upon here. :o
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True.

I hope sharing my own experience with dental work is acceptable. :o
 
Don’t mess around with baby teeth and fail to get them filled. Decay can spread to the permanent teeth. And please don’t let your kid see you freak out. Teach them rather, to trust a good dentist.
 
Dentists (I mean normal generic DDSs, not natural dentists) have different philosophies about how aggressive to be about filling small cavities. I had one who gave me 5 fillings in one year as an adult, and the total fillings I’ve had in my whole life (including those 5) is only 8. I’m really not sure now that all of the fillings (which were (except one) so tiny that novocaine wasn’t needed at all) were necessary.

But it’s not something you can figure out for yourself, so I suggest talking to another dentist. Maybe phone up a practice with more than one dentist, and tell the admin that you want an appointment with someone who is not aggressive in treatment but more conservative. Then if the second dentist says the same work is necessary, bite the bullet and get it done, however you can. Tooth problems can cause systemic health problems if they are not fixed.

–Jen
 
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