[pab]

I have a 27 month old daughter that needs 6 crowns on her upper fours and back molars. Her teeth looks like bottle-decay, and she has never taken a bottle. She only nurses, and yes also at night. I have three other daughters that I nursed the same and this never happened. Anyway, her teeth do not bother her for now, but they do look bad. The dentist can fix everything for 3000.00 which would be a hardship for us. Other alternatives are pulling front four and capping molars. Capping molars, pulling front and having a pontic with four fake teeth. Do nothing until they start bothering her. I wish I had the money to anethetize her and have it all done, but I can't even tell my husband I brought her and what they want to do yet. He is already so burdened financially, and I am a stay at home mom with 4 daughters. What would you Do?

[Hypatia]

I offer you support. When I was giving birth to my son the midwife gave me a very strong antibiotic because I tested positive for strep B. When my son turned about 16 months we noticed dark spots on his two front teeth. We brushed and thought maybe it was from the antibiotic as tetracyclene antibiotic drugs can discolor the teeth. Yet we werent for sure of the antibiotic being a tetra family drug. A few months later while brushing his teeth the enamel just fell off. Both front teeth were a brownish color under the enamel and grey on the backs.
There is no confirmed reason, only suspicion as to how this happened. My family doen not carry dental insurance. We have full medical but no dental. So we are forced with the same choices.
What we have chose is to have his two front teeth pulled. You have to think, while it is not so pretty, it is baby teeth you are dealing with. If it were adult teeth, we would invest everything we could spare. But these teeth will grow back and he will have little problems from not having them.
I think you will just have to do as we are doing and bite the bullet. Get her teeth pulled, no fake teeth, cap the molars and wait it out. By the time she is 6 nature will take care of itself.
I know its hard thinking of your child with no teeth but do you have the 3k to spend on getting her false teeth to wear for 5 years or less? Because when just one of those teeth come in, she will not be able to wear the implant/false teeth set. So she will eventually have one tooth at a time growing in and no false teeth to hide the rest.
It is a wasted expense of vanity.
Crap happens and we have to roll with the punches and not give in to soceities vanity.
It is more important that she is healthy and happy than has all of her teeth.

Hypatia

[howards girl]

Please, Please look into a better pediatric dentist for second opinion. I took at the time my 9 month old to the pediatrician because his teeth looked black. Doc said looks like bottle rot. Took him to the dentist that was recommended and said it was bottle rot. To make a very long story short found a very well known pediatric dentist in another county and , just by saying hello to him (son was smiling. Said no bottle rot it was iron stains. He polished them up and now my son has pearly whites. Trust me his teeth looked bad. We still do not know how he got iron stains since he was not taking vitamins with iron no iron in formula(I called the co.) and none in the food either.

[lisa charles]

Caps for baby teeth are NOT vanity. Those "baby" teeth are in use for a good 6 or 7 years.
They serve a CRITICAL function as being the blueprint for adult teeth. This means that when the permanent teeth come in, they may well come in crooked or "askew". Then, you will really have a dental bill when the kid needs braces not to mention jaw difficulties from your child having to have eaten baby food until first grade.

[tickle]

We were always told not to put a baby down with juice in a bottle because this, on top of other things, would ruin the gums.

[NowWhat]

When my daughter was about a year old and cutting her front teeth - one of them started chipping with the smallest bumps. Then she fell on one of her toys and broke a large piece off and the tooth was left jagged. We took her to the dentist and they did the x-rays and said there was no problem - it was just a bad tooth. He said they could cap it, but because they were so small, it would never look right.
About the same time, we were dealing with back to back ear infections so she was on antibotics for what seemed like months on end.
Finally, on a break from the antibotics, I was brushing her teeth one day and she made this sour face when I brushed that tooth. It had abcessed. I took her back to the dentist and they had to pull it. She was 16 months old. She was not put under - just numbed and she did fine.
She is now 6 and the tooth still has cut through yet, but any day now.
We have, however, come to terms that she will need braces someday. Without that tooth there, the others spread and took over some of that space, now there isn't sufficient room for the adult tooth. But, we didn't really have the option of whether to keep that tooth or not.
She now has four teeth missing across the top and she doesn't have to eat baby food, she manages just fine. Although, Apples are a bit challenging. :)

If I had to decide on what to do, I would probably leave her teeth if they aren't causing health problems or discomfort. If the dentist feels that this could effect the adult teeth, then have them pulled. We have learned that doctors are willing to take payments!
Good Luck!

[subduedjoy]

My granddaughter is three and has rotten teeth. The dentist recommended that she get two of them pulled so that the rotting doesn't spread. She had local anesthesia. My granddaughter understands why the dentist had to take out two of her teeth. She understands that her teeth rotted. She also knows that she will get one more set of teeth so the missing teeth are temporary and that she needs to brush her teeth so that no more teeth will rot.

[flossie]

Please note date of original post subdued. This thread is 3 yrs old and should have been closed.