6 y.o. advised to get 8 crowns! What the what!?

@richking58 Jesus. For adults here it’s not free, although Canada just came out with dental benefits for adults who make less than X amount. It’s so crazy to me how other countries (namely USA) work
 
@katrina2017 Oh, I agree. I assure you that a fair amount of us HATE the US health system. But our overseers prefer money payouts from insurance companies that keep us poor - so…
 
@on_a_mission_ I can tell from my own experience that fillings are definitely a thing in baby teeth. I had a lot when I was a kid.
Yes, baby teeth fall out, but your kid will have her molars for quite a few more years until then. So you definitely should get them looked after.

I see no reason why a kid would need crowns though unless the teeth are completely rotten. But then, I’m nor a dentist, just someone who has had bad teeth from childhood on.
 
@on_a_mission_ You should definitely take her to see another doctor and get a second professional opinion.

But about the sealing treatment: it can be done for sensitive teeth. It helps them not hurt so much when in contact with too cold, too sweet substances. I had it done for me a few times and don’t recall it being useful for cavities.

Also it would be useful for her to brush her teeth in the morning and after every main meal (this is what my mom always recommended and she is a dentist, worked fine for our teeth growing up).
 
@on_a_mission_ Does your kiddo ever store food in her cheeks? We had to get 3 fillings and 2 crowns at age 5 because we had not realized our son was holding food in his cheeks and it really messed his teeth up despite brushing morning and night.
 
@on_a_mission_ You might not have failed. My husband's side of the family has 'thick spit' and it makes getting cavities super easy even with adequate brushing. Especially kids. My son had to have 4 when he was 5. My niece also had a mouth of fillings.

The crown thing sounds a bit much. I've seen some tiktoks that say a lot of dentists recommend too much for minor cavities. Evidently you can remineralize the tooth if the cavity is small and external.

I highly recommend getting the molar sealed. After my oldest's issues I asked the dentist to do that for my younger 2. He wasn't very key on it but with the family history of issues I was able to convince him to do it. It just seals up those grooves on the molars. And they're gonna lose those teeth anyways.
 
@on_a_mission_ My sister never had her enamel grow in....one time had 13 cavaties at her 6 month, and she is a fastidious brusher and flosser. Sometimes it's just the way it is. Get a second opinion.
 
@on_a_mission_ When I was little, apparently it was common to be seen at age 2, then not until age five. My teeth were fine at age 2, but I had a few cavities at age 5. The dentist filled them with silver-colored fillings (no crowns), but it was traumatic. I still can't eat banana-flavored foods (banana bread, banana pudding, etc) because some medication they used during the procedure was banana flavored (fresh bananas are fine, but no cooked banana foods for me).

Modern dentistry focuses much more on recalcification and uses higher-fluoride toothpaste if necessary. There is also a treatment to stop decay in its tracks for children called silver diamond fluoride.

See this article:
https://nyunews.com/news/2023/03/01/nyu-dentistry-cavity-study/

My dental hygienist said she is only aware of silver diamine fluoride being used to stop cavities and it makes a black mark where the cavity was (no coloration difference on healthy enamel), but for now, our dentist didn't want to use it for our kids, even with the prevention record described in this article.

I highly recommend finding another option other than crowns, but that is primarily coming from my childhood trauma.
 
@dusht My grandkid's dentist uses silver diamine fluoride. My granddaughter had GERD so badly that it caused seizure-like activity and an extremely acidic environment for her teeth. She also has very deep grooves in her molars, so it was the perfect storm for tooth decay, despite practicing good oral hygiene starting with her first incisors.

She had several pre-cavities that they treated when she was 2yo and only one advanced to a cavity that needed filling and she's 7 now.

Some parents refuse the treatment because they don't want black marks on their child's teeth, but we were glad we did it and her teeth are healthy now. Her dentist's office is really great. Their name is Stellar Kid's Dentistry and I would absolutely say that it's an apt title.
 
@on_a_mission_ We didn’t get crowns for our kids, but the dentist advised a sealing barrier to help protect them. I can’t remember the actual technical name — but we did that because it was covered under Medicare (Australia) and it wasn’t invasive.
 
@on_a_mission_ My kid had 5 stainless steel crowns at 2 or 3 years old. I was still brushing them for her, and she wasn't on a bottle. She just had bad baby teeth, I guess.

Her adult teeth? They are perfectly fine and healthy. Hasn't had a single cavity, and she is 17 now
 
@on_a_mission_ Baby teeth can definitely get cavities, I had a bunch as a kid. At my son's first dental appointment (around 18 months) the dentist told me to brush his teeth twice a day until he was 3-4, then teach him and he can do one a day with supervision, and the parents should do one brushing a day until 10 years old! It takes a lot of time to learn to mindfully brush your teeth and do a good job I guess. Anyway, he is 5 now and no cavities so far.
 
@on_a_mission_ I'm not a parent, but when I was about 4 yrs old, my dentist told my mom that I needed to have all my front incisors pulled. My mother's dental health isn't the best, so she listened to him and I got them pulled (which was hell because he didn't do much to much to numb me). You can see in pictures of me around that time that I had good teeth. Because of that, I didn't have teeth in the front of my mouth for almost 3 years. When I was about 9-10, I did have fillings put in for some cavities I had in my remaining baby teeth (by a different dentist who I still go to as a 21 yr old) but those teeth I ended up pulling out by eating gummies lol.

This is to say I would check and get a second opinion before you go through with this if you can. The dentist who pulled my healthy teeth is no longer able to practice after a few more parents came forward in my hometown with similar stories and got him and his office shut down.
 
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