22 month old teeth problems

[Daniel2013]

Hello,
I have a son that is 1 year and 10 month old. That is 22 month old.
His teeth issue started at about 7-8 month. Three of his first upper teeth started to chip. They are not even the first three. We did not give him any sweets at all.
Dentists and GP advised that we wait for longer as long as he does not feel any pain, as it would be to soon to try to do something to them, as he would not stay still. But this does not seem to be such a good idea, as they slowly deteriorate.



Any advice or opinions?
Thank you very much.

[moderator's note: the original image link was broken, so we substituted a photo to illustrate the issue]

 

[brit]

Hi Daniel
It might help a dentist to answer if they know which country you are in. Is it UK?
In the UK the approach with very young children is only to intervene dentally if absolutely necessary. In a child of your son's age I think if he did get pain issues, they would look to do a GA in hospital to treat him as he is too young to co-operate.

By the age of 3-3 1/2 he might be able to co-operate, or he might not.
I think in your shoes I would want to ask as a parent, who do you contact if he gets pain and how quickly could they treat him?
If your local hospital has a Pediatric Ward and an oral surgery dept, I would guess you would be able to get prompt care in the event of pain issues developing.

Hopefully a dentist from an appropriate country will chime in in due course.

 

[Daniel2013]

Hello again,
Yes, we live in UK.
Hopefully a dentist can reply, as to be honest, I do not think they should be left untreated like this.
Thank you very much.

 

[brit]

Hello again,
Yes, we live in UK.
Hopefully a dentist can reply, as to be honest, I do not think they should be left untreated like this.
Thank you very much.

Yes. But I think the approach is more to do with the small risk of a GA causing death than with a desire to save funds. In the USA you would find a dental mill/pediatric dentist willing to restrain your son in a papoose board, with or without administering some sedation drugs which are unpredictable and dangerous for young children, so not much of an option either.

If you were rich enough in USA, you could opt to have your son treated under GA in USA but the same as in the UK, you are running all the risks of GA for teeth which will eventually fall out and/or in a few months he may be able to co-operate with just local anaesthetic and a dentist with the right approach.

If he gets pain then he will have to be treated, the older he is, the easier and less risky this is.
It's a hard one.

 

[Daniel2013]

I understand. Well... it is fair answer.
It is hard to accept that in 2013 there is no intervention to help such kind of affections.
I can just hope that he will not feel pain in the year to come.

Thank you.

 

[comfortdentist]

I'm in the USA and this is a classic case of advanced nursing bottle syndrome. This case should not be done in an office. This is an OR case. In Florida your medical insurance pays for the hospital costs. This case is or was 100% preventable. I just saw a 1 year old for a discussion or a well baby 1st check in order to prevent this disaster. In USA if a second child from the same family presents this way it mandates a call to the Children's Medical service and is treated as child abuse requiring intervention. That is the law here.

 

[Daniel2013]

Hello again,
I want to add that my son was breastfed. No bottle or anything else. Not even pacifier.
Regards.

 

[comfortdentist]

Excess time breastfeeding can also lead to this thanks for the clarification. I would expect the pediatrician to pick up earlier.
Fist dental visits in USA start rather early just for this purpose. Not trying to attack anyone just to make it clear.

 

[Daniel2013]

It is all good.
Now we have to see how we can tackle the situation we have in hand.

Do you have any advice or opinions?
Regards.

 

[Gordon]

It's pretty unlikely that any treatment will be successful in the case of the front 4 teeth.

I would be very reluctant to try because he'd likely need a general anaesthetic to do the treatment and then probably another GA to do the extractions if the treatment failed.

Assuming that you've sorted out your son's diet now then there's a fair chance the teeth won't cause any symptoms until they are naturally shed. If they do then a general anaesthetic and extractions is what I'd be thinking of doing.

 

[Daniel2013]

Thank you all very much for everything.
This thread is high regarded and much appreciated.
All the best!

 

[comfortdentist]

On this one part I would say if you are going to pursue treatment then have treatment with an experienced pediatric dentist who routinely does pulpectomies and strip crowns.

 

[Daniel2013]

Yes, I understand. I can try to make sure that he is experienced. I will fight for it though.
Thank you for the guidance.
Regards.