The dentist told me that Caitlin's tooth enamel were badly formed, that is why she gets cavities easily. Badly formed enamel already has lots of pits that trap food. Sigh.
What we can do now is to brush her teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and at night, we let the toothpaste with fluoride remain on her teeth, and dap a bit of fluoride toothpaste on the cavities. And also, we have to wean her off the night feeds (she can't have fluoride on her teeth and then drink milk right?) which I have already done when I found out that she has so many cavities. Fluoride therapy, the dentist said, would delay the progression of decay until she is old enough to go through the procedure for filling. The brown spots will not go away but will not get deeper, and some beginning decay may remineralise.
Badly formed enamel... that never happened to Kieran. He has nice teeth although two of his molars had decay which were filled. Being experienced with dealing with tooth decay with my older child, I was very diligent with brushing and cleaning of teeth for Caitlin, my second born, so why does the decay still happen? Why was her enamel so weak and badly formed? I'm agonising over these questions. So I did some research.
Breastfeeding mothers does not need to rush to wean their babies off night feeds to prevent decay. In fact research has shown that breast milk can protect baby's teeth from decay. Unfortunately, research has also shown that night nursing exacerbates decay if baby already has cavities. A lot of factors goes into baby tooth decay. It could be genetics, medications mother took while pregnant and affected the formation of baby teeth, mother's health while pregnant with baby, presence of bacteria that caused the decay (the sugar bugs) and of course parents' diligence in brushing and taking care of babies' teeth. I've read that antibiotics caused weak tooth enamel. I'm avoiding antibiotics for my kids unless absolutely necessary. I had a very serious episode of stomach flu that required hospitalisation and strong medication while I was 8 weeks pregnant with Caitlin and I thought that might be the reason for her badly formed enamel. Every time I brush her teeth, or see her smile, and see those cavities, I say sorry to her. I'll take extra good care of her teeth now. I hope she won't have to go through too extreme restorative dentistry work that requires GA, and I certainly pray this won't affect her permanent adult teeth.
Read more about weak tooth enamel here.
