Kids & Cavities

 

Today Moms:  Preschoolers in Surgery for a Mouthful of Cavities

This story totally floored me.  On a day where I JUST returned from a second week of pediatric dental visits for my 3-year old, I see that our household situation is not as bad as the teething tots in this article.  To not brush your child's teeth because he/she doesn't like it should be seen as a form of neglect.  In my opinion anyway.  The result is a mouthful of cavities so bad that a child has to undergo surgery?  I can't imagine letting my child's teeth get that bad.  Who wants to smell that breath too?

The moment our daughter neared two years old, we went to a local Brooklyn dentist recommended by neighboring parents.  He got paid to do nothing.  Our daughter wanted nothing to do with the dentist and cried the whole time. He may have looked inside her mouth but I don't recall him brushing her teeth with bubblegum toothpaste.  We still got a bill.  We didn't go back.

My son getting "gassed" in the Candy Shop Room

 xxThe second time she visited a pediatric dentist way out in Manhassett, where a snotty receptionist made me feel as if I were inconveniencing her, my daughter peed on me.  How?  She wouldn't sit in the dental chair alone so I was asked to sit with her to subdue her if she were to resist the dentist's requests.  All of a sudden things started to get warm and wet.  Note to new parents: make sure your kids go potty before dental visits.  Bring a change of clothes too.

The third time I searched far and wide to find a pediatric dentist.  We did and we love her.  However, she is out of network.  That means outta pocket.  She always seems to find at least one cavity in our children's mouths.  The first time, I get it.  The second time, what's really going on?  We brush our children's mouths twice a day, but their juice intake needed adjustment.  Now we are discouraging strawberry milk and trying to limit their juice intake to just breakfast and dinner.  Our kids are great about drinking water.  As long as it's ice cold. 

My daughter in the "Barn Yard Room"

Two weeks ago during the last visit to the dentist, each kid was diagnosed with two cavities.  We were previously encouraged to brush their teeth and not to let them brush them.  Our dentist still brushes her 9-year old's teeth.  Dreaming of the day where I can send my daughter into the bathroom dirty and she miraculously comes out clean has now been pushed further into the future.  The bedtime routine is, as my son would say, super-duper-ooper-schmooper long as it is.  However, we brush them.  Cheese.  Ahhh... Cheese. Tongue.  That's the brainchild of my husband.  He's cool like that.

Our kids still developed cavities.  How?  They brush twice daily.  They take multi-vitamins with fluoride.  Water on Long Island does not have fluoride in it.  We buy the mini Poland Spring water bottles which I have both in the house and in my trunk.  We have never sent them to bed with a bottle of juice.  Candy is limited if at all.  We do keep a mini bottle of water in their rooms so we won't have to go downstairs for a glass of water, the universal request at stall tactic used by tots across the world at bedtime.  As I write this post, I notice that the drops my 6 year old is taking is for children 6 months - 4 years old.  Hmmm.....I'm on the phone now with the dental office now.   Could this be the culprit?

$240+ in dental work later per child, turns out my daughter's fluoride prescription was wrong.  Great. 

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