My son has many teeth with what the dentist calls defects in the enamel. He has had one filled an another one to get done. He has several teeth with this problem. Besides sealants (cant afford them) what could we do? What caused this? And will his adult teeth be affected?

Did he have any kind of fluoride treatments? If he did, then you can point your finger at the problem - fluoride ruined his enamel. This happened to my son when he had just gotten his adult teeth.

Sealants are only used on the upper tooth surfaces of the molars - not the entire tooth.

Danny just had his 1st fluoride tratment. All defects are near the gum line, it is all uneaven and very discoloured.

Yep. My son had the fluoride "treatments" also and that is exactly where his teeth are screwed up. You can happily thank your dentist for wrecking his teeth. Sorry. He's 25 and his teeth are worse than when he was a kid. The only way to properly treat this mess is to have the teeth filled using the enamel colored fillings and NEVER use fluoride toothpaste or have any fluoride treatments!! We use a fluoride free toothpaste from Italy called Kiss My Face. Works great and has no fluoride. You can get at local health food stores or some progressive supermarkets that carry health food store type products. No fluoride toothpaste, OK?

We. Do not use floridated water or tooth paste. This was his first and only treatment of floride. The damage was already there

Just get the fillings done and make sure he gets his fluoride... sealants on newly erupted adult molars are VERY cheap.. anyone can afford them

By me it is about 150 per tooth

Those are fillings, not sealants... sealants are like 15$

Not here! If it were only 15$ I would get all his teeth and mine done as well

I'd check around for a new dentist; I've never heard of a simple sealant costing so much!

Do you or your husband have a hereditary condition with your teeth? Does your son get enough calcium in his diet?

And no, the fluoride treatments are not going to hurt his teeth; my sisters and I all had them and our teeth are fine.

Did your son have high fevers or was he on a lot of antibiotics before these teeth erupted? This can cause defects in the enamel.

I agree with Dr. Amir, have the fillings done, keep his teeth clean with brushing and flossing. Sealants will help protect the chewing surfaces of his teeth but won't do anything for the surfaces near the gumline.

Where on earth do you live that sealants would cost you $150?! Here they are about $20 for the first tooth per quadrant and $9 for each extra tooth per quadrant.

flossie, do you recommend sealants?

I recommend sealants on teeth that have deep pits and grooves on the biting surfaces.
Enamel defects (roughness) are not generally caused by fluoride consumption. I'm an advocate for fluoride for children and adults with a high decay risk.

If brushing with a fluoride toothpaste you just need to use a very small pea size amount on the toothbrush and be sure your son doesn't swallow any.

Toothpaste with fluoride shouldn't be used until a child is good at spitting(boys are generally good at this at a very young age!)

For parents who absolutely want to avoid fluoride for their children I recommend pastes with NovaMin in them.