My 5 Year Old’s Teeth are Rotting

Posted by writeradmin

Can you help me think through how I can best help my daughter? She is five years old and uncooperative at the dentist’s office. I think this is the reason for the problem we are facing now because I do brush her teeth every day. She needs a lot of work, especially on her back molars. Her molars all have pretty bad decay. Two of them have lost 30% of their tooth structure. With them being baby teeth, should I just take them out or is there a better way to handle this?

Amelia

Dear Amelia,

I can tell that you care about your daughter and that you are doing everything you can to take care of her. With some baby teeth you can just take them out. Back teeth are different. Not only does she need these to eat, but she will also need them in place until she is about twelve years old when those molars come in.

The ideal solution is to save these teeth. However, sometimes the decay has gone too far and the teeth have to be extracted. When this happens you need your pediatric dentist to place a space maintainer. This will hold that place open for the new molars to come in. Without those, the other teeth will shift and tip into the open space. This leads to overcrowding once her molars do come in. You’ll be spending a fortune on orthodontics if that happens.

Facing Your Daughter’s Decay Head On

First things first, your daughter needs those decayed teeth taken care of. It sounds like to get this done you may need to use some dental sedation. If your pediatric dentist doesn’t offer this, then find one who does. You don’t want this decay to turn into a serious infection. People still die from tooth infections.

Second, this severity of decay usally requires a lot of snacking. You can brush her teeth twice a day and floss daily, but if she is snacking all the time, you are sabotoging those habits.

One of the biggest defences against decay is our saliva because it contains minerals that fight bacteria, but the more we snack, the less effective it gets. I would limit her snacking to twice a day max. Also make sure she is drinking water and not sodas or juice between meals.

This blog is brought to you by Mt. Dora Dentist Dr. Michelle Stillman.