Whenever we leave a restaurant or store the clerk tries to give our girl candy, we say “bu yao, bu yao,” but they don’t understand and give it to her anyway, so we take it away from her later and throw it out. We also told our nanny not to give her candy and I know she does it anyway. But at least we have moderate luck in brushing her teeth twice a day, though that usually requires clever tactics and persuasion.
Anyway, my co-worker just told me a story that should shock the hell out of any parent who fails to make such efforts to protect the teeth of your child.
He says his mom and babysitter always give lots of candy to their 2.5 year old, so now she is going to the dentist for a series of major visits to have four teeth removed and cavities filled in four other teeth. Her first visit was yesterday and it lasted 2 hours. The dentist had a special chair with straps they used to tie down her arms and legs and the girl cried, screamed and bucked against her restraints for the entire 2 hours. Hell, I don’t blame her; I’m scared of dentists too.
Yesterday was just the easy, preliminary session. Tomorrow they take her back for a longer session which is predicted to last about 3 hours and she will again be tied up, kicking, screaming and crying for the entire time. I can’t imagine performing a job like that and I feel terribly for my friend having to drive his daughter there, deliver her to the torturer and help tie her up. I hope some day she will forgive him.
The amazing thing is the grandmother whose fault it is for giving her all the damn candy apparently hasn’t learned her lesson. “But she likes the candy,” the old bat says. I was glad to hear that the grandfather yelled at her yesterday that she’s a damn fool and she’s killing the girl, but my friend is unsure that she’ll get the lesson. Idiot. :fume:
Anyway, just thought I’d share this with you parents out there. Please try to keep your child from suffering such a terrible fate.
Candies don’t cause cavities or bad teeth. Candies are just food for caries and caries usually comes from the parents who lick their kids’ spoons, pacifiers, fingers etc.
The dentist is a butcher. My friend is a dentist and she has told me about kids she has had in the office. A normal dentist doesn’t do anything the first time - they play, look at the stuff and ride up and down on the chair. The second time they just look at the kid’s teeth and don’t do anything. If the kid has really bad teeth that need to be pulled out, they use anesthaesia (or is it narcosis).
Your co-worker is an extremely ignorant parent and should stop blaming the grandmother. A parent who waits so long before going to the dentist and then lets the dentist tie the kid up for 2,5 hours is NOT completely normal in the head. :s
What? You really don’t believe constant candy eating leads to bad teeth? I never heard of someone doubting that. Nor have I heard of caries, but if eating candy leads to caries which lead to cavities, then it sounds like candy leads to cavities, no?
I think they did have a play session before the torture sessions. As for knocking her out for the procedures, he says they discussed that and decided it wasn’t worth the risk, which seems not improbable to me. Use of anestheasia always involves risks and I would imagine its more dangerous for a very young child, perhaps especially in Taiwan.
I don’t deny that he’s partly at fault, but you know how Taiwanese families are. If a grandmother insists she’s going to feed the child till it’s an overinflated blimp or cram candy in its face till its teeth fall out or whatever, there’s no stopping her. Grandparents give grandkids everything they ask for and children are incapable of standing up to their parents. As for whether he’s crazy to let the child be tortured now – if the kid’s teeth are all rotten and the dentist says we have to rip them out it’s not so illogical to feel, shit, goddamn, I hate this but we have to do it. You can’t just let them sit there and keep rotting can you?
MT, our boy eats his share of candy, and has great teeth. Why? Because up until about a year ago, my wife and I brushed them for him, twice a day, and he did it at kindergarten.
I’m with notsu in saying your coworker mucked something up long before the visit to the Dentist’s office.
You are right in wanting to protect the teeth of your toddler. It’s called brushing them.
Cavities are the actual holes in the teeth, caries is the formation of those. If you don’t want to be too technical then caries = cavities, as richardm said.
Despite all manner of good toof hygeine, my boy was a bastard for sleeping as an infant. He’d wake up at odd hours hollering for a bottle, so we gave him organic apple juice diluted with water. and he’d go back to sleep. Turns out the sugar from the juice nestles in behind the teat on a bottle and rots the teeth something awful. Mercifully they were only baby teeth!
I wasn’t saying that sugar is harmless - but what causes cavities is caries NOT sugar itself. And caries is an infectious disease, not a normal part of a newborn baby’s mouth microflora. Rule number 1: Don’t lick your kids spoons, pacifiers, fingers etc.
[quote]Early childhood caries is an infectious disease, and the Streptococcus mutans bacteria is the main causative agent. Not only does S. mutans produce acid, it also thrives in acid. High sugar levels in the mouth increase the acid levels on the teeth. In children with ECC, oral Streptococcus mutans levels routinely exceed 30% of the cultivable dental plaque flora.
The first event in the natural history of ECC is primary infection with S. mutans. The second event is the accumulation of S. mutans to pathologic levels, due to prolonged exposure to sugars. The third event is demineralization of enamel, which leads to cavity formation in teeth.
Early infection with S. mutans is a significant risk factor for future development of dental caries.[b] Colonization of an infant
omg! I had no idea! I always put my kids hands in my mouth, share spoons etc. I thought I was protecting them by limiting candies and brushing their teeth. Dammit, just another way I’ve screwed them up already
Well I hope you learned your lesson. If they suffer severe permanent emotional trauma you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. Shame shame. :raspberry:
My kid won’t let me brush his teeth. We’ve been trying since he had his first teeth and it’s just impossible. He does “brush” his teeth by himself - takes the toothbrush, sucks on it until the toothpaste is gone, and then leaves it. We also have an “evil” grandmother who feeds him way too many candies and other sweet stuff. Plus my kid gets hysterical when he sees anything that looks like a doctor or a doctor’s office.
If I had been careless and had given him caries by sharing spoons and licking his pacifier, he’d be teethless by now. But his teeth are fine, cause he hasn’t been infected with caries.
If your kids let you brush their teeth and you manage to keep them away from candies and grandmas, then you’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it. But I can only be very very happy that I’ve never licked my kid’s fingers or spoons, cause otherwise the situation would be really sad now. :s
I don’t know why a parent would lick his/her child’s fingers ( ), but we do have trouble brushing her teeth. She’s a little over 2, believes she can do everything perfectly and doesn’t need/want any help. Besides, she likes to just chew on her little baby brush. But I’ve had very good luck lately, after allowing her to chew on her brush for awhile, in telling her she’s such a big girl that now we can use “daddy’s brush”, which is actually just her second brush which she allows me to use on her briefly before she finally grabs it away to do it herself. It’s a challenge, but we’re persistent, twice a day.
After hearing my co-worker’s story, though, I’m a little nervous, so I think we’ll bring her in to get a second coat of fluoride painted on her teeth.
Ever seen a 2 year old eat ice cream? Licking their fingers is not so weird. Usually, it’s a selfprotective measure. You don’t want them touching you or your clothes with ice creamy fingers; he is sitting on your lap, and the napkins are too far away.
He does “brush” his teeth by himself - takes the toothbrush, sucks on it until the toothpaste is gone, and then leaves it. We also have an “evil” grandmother who feeds him way too many candies and other sweet stuff. Plus my kid gets hysterical when he sees anything that looks like a doctor or a doctor’s office.