Lulu had her first dental appointment. I know.. a little late. She did a great job. She went back with the hygienist without any fuss and loved it. They showed her some cool magic tricks with the water and gave her oodles and fun items to take home (latex gloves- she is hysterical when she puts them on.. always trying to look in my mouth). However, that is where the good times stopped.
Lulu has cavities. I knew she had one spot on her tooth, but we have been trying to cut back on her sugar (which mind you.. isn't really all that much) and were just hoping that would be the end of the line. NOPE. Unfortunately she has so many cavities that they are going to knock her out to fix them. Otherwise it would be 3 separate appointments and according to the dentist- "by the third they have caught on and refuse to go." Seriously- what kind of crappy mother am I? They did say it seems as though she has an aggressive bug in her mouth because the places they are seeing cavities aren't normal for a 4 year old. She also has a really small mouth which means all of her teeth touch or overlap (not crazy looking, but enough to cause problems). And she inherited my bad teeth so I should have guessed as much. We marched right home and emptied the little jar of candy that sits on our counter. She no longer eats any type of chewy candy (like gummy bears, etc) and we have removed fruit snacks from her list of options. We also don't let her have a sucker at the bank or anywhere else for that matter. Aside from the pain and suffering- our checkbook is also going to be in a lot of pain. Let's just say that it will cost me out of pocket what it cost for me to deliver both Lulu and Teddy combined. Yeah- don't get me started. Where is the outrage about good dental insurance? I know- we are lucky we have any, but we pay a fortune for it and still it barely covers anything. I think it is ironic that everyone is in an uproar about health care, but dental health is just as important- as I have just had shoved down my throat. So.. let me be the cautionary tale- take your kids to the dentist BEFORE they are 3. According to our dentist the optimal age is 1 1/2- 2 years old. Also, make sure your city puts in the proper amount of fluoride. Which is another issue I will refrain from venting about.
We now floss her teeth, brush them repeatedly throughout the day (basically every time she eats) and put fluoride on her teeth at night when she goes to bed. Hopefully this will preserve the few teeth without cavities. I just pray Teddy inherited Adam's teeth!
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16 comments:
We just went through this--so I feel your pain--in every sense. Seth had to have a root canal and now has a nice shiny silver tooth (which he's quite proud of, actually). Flossing is the big doozy--we brushed but never flossed and that's the only way to save teeth in a mouth with close quarters. Live and learn, right?
that sucks! i think sometimes it doesn't really matter how you take care of your teeth -- if you're prone to cavities you're going to get them. i've had so much dental work done its sickening so i'm knocking on wood that my kids didn't inherit my weak teeth!
seeing as brynn had eight at 3, I think we have inherited some nasty things. Luckily, for Brynn with the placement of her cavities, they found that her enamel had not formed all the way. We too gave up on fruit snacks (the dentist told us too). I wish we were as good with the brushing.
Brynn continues to always have high levels of plaque as well, so every dentist has told me that luckily it was nothing we did not do, it is more just that she has some pretty high levels of bacteria.
He told us to dip their brushes in the fluoride rinse for kids and than brush it on their teeth, until they learn how to swish and swallow, that did some great tricks too.
Poor Lulu, the W teeth stink.
Oh, man. I wish my kids had inherited Marc's great teeth, but no such luck.
I take my kids to the dentist when they are around 1, ever since I used to visit teach a dental hygienist at a pedodontist office -- she told me some horror stories about 2 year olds that scared me into taking mine in early.
BUT, even still, Eva had to be knocked out and get a baby root canal before she was 2!
Sorry you have to deal with this.
Evie chews up a little flouride pill at night because neither place we have lived has flouridated water, apparantly flouride is a neurotoxin, which isa big and scary word (I am completely uneducated on it) but in PA it raised enough furor to be quashed when adding it was raised, and here I am not sure it was ever considered, or if it has a bad effect on farming, I just don't know. I do know that my pregnancy with Stella sucked the life out of my teeth, and I was supposed to see a dentist here ASAP, but didn't have insurance until fall, and now I've been putting it off and I am starting to get teeth (plural) aches... The big problem (well, equally as large) is that more and more dentists won't take medicaid (I am not judging, it often costs them money to take medicaid because they make about a 10% cut a year in reimbursments) so in some parts of the country there is about a year waiting list for a dentist that takes is. In 07 3 children died of sepsis that started as infected teeth. Isn't that sad and preventable?
Anywho, I need to make an appt. One of the sore teeth is the one I had to have a root canal and then a repeat root canal on when I was pregnant with Stella...
I didn't take my kids to the dentist before they were 3 either.
It seems like a lot of teeth issues are hereditary because some kids are sugar hounds and don't get cavities and other kids aren't yet still end up with cavities.
We had good dental insurance until March 31st when our benefits ended, and I just got a postcard from the kids' dentist yesterday about their May 7th appointment. Now I have to call and find out how much it will be without insurance otherwise we're not going. Aargh!
I am so sorry, that is scary. I hope that if my children inherit my love for sweets, they will also inherit my teeth. I have never had a cavity. Eric on the other hand... The first time I saw the inside of his mouth I thought he was still having some sort of orthodontia. I had never seen a silver filling before, and he has a ton of them.
You shouldn't beat yourself up too bad. Like what jill said, it can be totally base on genetics.
We've had some kids with cavities over here and it's no fun.
We need to be better at the flossing too. It's so hard to floss there small mouths.
sorry about the deleted comment. I should be in bed.
I think it is total genetics. I had 13 cavities at one time as a child. My kids so far don't have any and they eat more candy and sugar than anyone you know. We even gave them bottles in bed until they were 2 1/2. Their teeth are pretty spaced apart so in between teeth isn't so much an issue. That really sucks - hopefully they will put her out before they fill them. I have HORROR stories of filling those 13 cavities that still haunts me!
It must be genetics because this just happened to my friend and her 3 year old son. My friend has always had issues with her teeth and when she took her son in he had 13cavities, 2 of which needed root canals. They have to go in 4 times. I think they've been to 1 of the 4 appointments and they put him out. Good luck and I think I'm going to start flossing Anna's teeth. She always begs me to floss her teeth each night, but I'm just lazy by the end of the day.
I feel your pain!
Luci and Griffin take a chewable fluoride tablet 3 days a week since the lovely water here isn't fluoridated either.
At first I hoped that my children wouldn't inherent Paul's teeth, since he's had more cavities than I even knew was possible. But then he informed me that from the ages of 11 to 16 he drank 64 ounces of Mountain Dew every day and NEVER brushed his teeth. Not once for 5 years. So I'm pretty sure his dental troubles were behavioral.
For the record, Paul has had meticulous oral hygene since then and has had many fewer cavities.
anxiously awaiting a 4th birthday post. . .
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