I wanted to update this thread in case any other worried parents in the same situation run across this thread in the future. If you PM me I’ll be glad to forward contact info.
Little girl had the procedure on Monday, everything was perfectly fine. We had it done at a hospital in Taichung, it was done in an operating room with an anaesthesiologist there as well as the dentist. We had a second opinion from a Taipei-based kids dentist who we understand is very well-respected and seems to have a great practice: we’ll probably go to him for future checkups.
It really was necessary at this point, as she was already developing a bad case of “bottle teeth” over a year ago, before we relocated to Taiwan. At the time, our (US-based) pediatrician was telling us that the kid would have to go through pretty much the same procedure (with full anaesthesia) even then, when she was just over 1 year old. More recently, one of her teeth was becoming sensitive when eating something like a banana.
Now, with the crowns, her teeth look absolutely gorgeous, better than mine. I’m dazzled all over again at what a beautiful little girl she is.
On the other hand, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed in some of the responses in this thread, especially the knee-jerk characterization of our dentist as a charlatan, and the hysterical bit about how rare it is to find a pediatric dentist that doesn’t regularly kill his patients. The politest thing I can say is those responses were extremely unhelpful and uninformed. Others, thanks for your replies.
[quote=“Lil’ Slugger”]I wanted to update this thread in case any other worried parents in the same situation run across this thread in the future. If you PM me I’ll be glad to forward contact info.
Little girl had the procedure on Monday, everything was perfectly fine. We had it done at a hospital in Taichung, it was done in an operating room with an anaesthesiologist there as well as the dentist. We had a second opinion from a Taipei-based kids dentist who we understand is very well-respected and seems to have a great practice: we’ll probably go to him for future checkups.
It really was necessary at this point, as she was already developing a bad case of “bottle teeth” over a year ago, before we relocated to Taiwan. At the time, our (US-based) pediatrician was telling us that the kid would have to go through pretty much the same procedure (with full anaesthesia) even then, when she was just over 1 year old. More recently, one of her teeth was becoming sensitive when eating something like a banana.
Now, with the crowns, her teeth look absolutely gorgeous, better than mine. I’m dazzled all over again at what a beautiful little girl she is.
On the other hand, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed in some of the responses in this thread, especially the knee-jerk characterization of our dentist as a charlatan, and the hysterical bit about how rare it is to find a pediatric dentist that doesn’t regularly kill his patients. The politest thing I can say is those responses were extremely unhelpful and uninformed. Others, thanks for your replies.[/quote]
Thanks for the update. Glad to hear everything is okay.
I’m very glad her smile satisfies you now. Do provide the name of those two charlatans, if you could, that might be useful for others less inclined to expose their kids to such risk for simple aesthetics. .
I’ll admit I’ve only read the first post. But that post horrified me so much, I feel obliged to immediately and brazenly post the following: it’s an email from my dad, who is a recently retired dentist. (xxxx is my daughter.)
[color=#0000FF]I thought this might help.
Sorry to hear your concerns over xxxx’s teeth. If she has dental caries then her dietary pattern is at fault. Bad teeth are not bad luck or bad genes: it is all about diet and timing; mostly timing. The damage to her baby teeth will not directly affect her permanent ones. However, the correction of her diet is essential if she is not going spend a great deal of her adult time and income in dental surgeries.
Permanent teeth start to appear at about age 6: four at the back and eight at the front. Before that age it is important to establish a dietary regime which will ensure that what has happened will not happen again.
Treatment of her present condition is less important. There is a strong case for saying that baby teeth (deciduous teeth) should never be filled. The presence of a cavity in a deciduous tooth is in itself not a reason for placing a filling. Doing so will probably produce more discomfort than doing nothing and is likely to make the child more difficult to treat in the future. If the cavity is shallow it will progress very slowly as long as the diet is improved. If the cavity is deep or if the tooth starts to hurt it is almost certainly going to die and later progress to a low grade chronic infection or discharging abscess; the risk of this causing her harm is very low. Cavities in deciduous teeth are mostly very difficult to treat satisfactorily at all stages. The “do nothing” policy for deciduous dental caries is supported by very good clinical evidence, and one that has been gaining ground in dental practice.
In order to manage her diet it helps to understand the process of dental caries which is fairly complicated. Wikipedia’s entry is good. Here is a simple explanation of the process: sugars in the mouth change quickly to acid. The acid dissolves the mineral tooth surface and continues for about 30 minutes. The damage is reversed by a very clever buffering process which takes two and a half hours. All food contains sugar (some has more than others); all food causes some decay for half an hour. All decay is reversible if given two and a half hours for completion. Further sugar intake during that recovery period causes further decay which gradually becomes irreversible. Tooth cleaning has very little influence on the decay process. The fluoride in toothpaste has a marked benefit. Its role is to attach itself to the calcium apatite molecule: calcium hydroxy apatite changes to calcium fluoro apatite, which is less soluble in low pH.
Here are two other relevant points.
Teeth which have been even microscopically damaged by decay are more susceptible to decay. A child who has had a little caries needs a stricter dietary regime than one who has not.
New teeth coming through are more susceptible to decay in their early stages. The surface enamel goes through what has been described as a maturation process becoming more resistant to decay after a few weeks/months.
Being a parent is tough. If you can identify changes which are needed in xxxx’s regime you have to decide whether to implement them gradually or immediately. Either way I know you will deal with it in a caring loving way.[/color]
The OP said above that it was a bad case of “bottle teeth”, which is what I suggested it might be in my first reply. This often happens when you fall into the habit of slipping a kid a bottle to help it sleep. The stuff coming out at the end of the teat forms a pool around the kid’s teeth and caries develop. Therefore, it;s not an issue of diet, per se, but rather parenting.
My son had this issue, basically because he was a bastard to get to sleep and his mum and I opted for the easiest option. His baby teeth were full of holes, but he suffered no pain - if he had we would have opted to remove the teeth. We obviously stopped the bottle feeding as soon as we realised it. His next generation of teeth came through perfectly fine as the crap baby teeth dropped out. I loved his smile, crappy teeth and all, albeit with some embarrasment at what we’d inadvertently done.
Highwave, that’s pretty much exactly what my sister said when I asked her about this – a mid-career dentist still in the thick of it, as opposed to an ancient one.
Crowns? Three hours of anaesthetic? On a TWO year old!!! For deciduous teeth? Are they MAD? Jaysus! (I’m paraphrasing – she’s a lot more polite than me).
Unhelpful? Nah, mate. Sensible.
My sister, by the way, also said of parents of young kids: “Hell yeah! We see 'em coming. BIG money in spurious treatment for their little darlings if you’re unscrupulous enough.”
You know I was really puzzled why some of the folks on this board had such a negative reaction to having a little girl’s teeth done, while all of the American and Taiwanese dentists, parents and nurses I talked to seemed to take it in stride. Then it occurred to me . . . y’all are British, aren’t you?
Hey uro, I was just thinking that just like the Americans, sub-Saharans have an aesthethic fetish pertaining to their daughters too, and yet everyone calls them uncivilised. Funny old world, eh?
Mike Myers is a Canadian. I think that explains it: citizens of the commonwealth have bad teeth while citizens of the US and US-influenced locales (Taiwan) have wonderful fake teeth.
Mike Myers is NOT an american? cor blimey, well, i’ll be blowed. knock me down with a feather. his Austin Powers teeth are falsies, btw, so they must be american!
americans, mexicans, canadians, they’re all NAFTAns. sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart.
oh, slugger, despite all that, i’m glad your daughter came through the anaesthetics OK. funny how odds work out that way, most of the time.
[quote=“Lil’ Slugger”]You know I was really puzzled why some of the folks on this board had such a negative reaction to having a little girl’s teeth done, while all of the American and Taiwanese dentists, parents and nurses I talked to seemed to take it in stride. Then it occurred to me . . . y’all are British, aren’t you?
[/quote]
As an American when it was suggested for my daughter, my reaction was “Holy !R@# that’s #@!$#!&@ nuts” and I acted accordingly, so not “all” But every parent has to make their own decisions and not every medical case is the same.
[quote=“sandman”]Highwave, that’s pretty much exactly what my sister said when I asked her about this – a mid-career dentist still in the thick of it, as opposed to an ancient one.
Crowns? Three hours of anaesthetic? On a TWO year old!!! For deciduous teeth? Are they MAD? Jaysus! (I’m paraphrasing – she’s a lot more polite than me).
Unhelpful? Nah, mate. Sensible.
My sister, by the way, also said of parents of young kids: “Hell yeah! We see 'em coming. BIG money in spurious treatment for their little darlings if you’re unscrupulous enough.”[/quote]
My daughter’s coming up to four. The rot in her teeth, though unsightly, appears to have abated. We took her to the dentist six months or so ago for the dentist to carry out some treatment to deal with the problem. I went expecting the treatment to be fissure sealing but to my horror, it was crowning that was proposed. Language confusion cleared up, I opted to wait and see, since I believe the risk of related oral infection is not high enough to justify crowning. So far, so good, despite the forces in opposition - eg, Tom, Dick and Harriet proffering sweets (tr. candy) and biscuits (tr. cookies) right, left and centre; and the sweets that appear in her bag every other day on her return from kindergarten. [I was recently at Bar Rioja, a tapas bar in Edinburgh. The manager wanted to give my 2yo niece a sweet, so out of sight of my niece, he showed it to her dad and whispered “Is she allowed one of these?”… how appropriate.]
But every parent has to make their own decisions and not every medical case is the same.