Dental success

Woohoo! No cavities yesterday!! I am so happy, DD is so happy.

After our dental woes of the last year, it is nice to see that the nightly flossing -- or something -- has paid off. She really needed that success.

Our dental insurance will pay 100% for sealants and I think I will have that done for her 6 year molars that came in. Has anyone had a bad experience with the sealants? It seems like a good idea to me.

[Sheherezade]

Yeah no cavities!! Must be the flossing. I should try that.

We have had a bad sealant experience....but that may have been from lack of education at the dentist's office that applied them. Apparently, you can not have anything hard to eat on those teeth afterwards. No hard candy, no....I don't know....hard stuff. My son's sealants cracked from something and then he got bacteria under the seal. Basically ate up his tooth because he couldn't brush the stuff out after it got beneath. That soured me on the sealants. I haven't decided what to do with my daughter yet. I suppose it could be better now that I know what to avoid, but it seems crazy that biting down on something crunchy could blow the whole process.

I'm going to have to look into this more. After having at least one filling on 6 of her 8 molars, a crown, and spending gobs of money, I was ready to jump on anything preventative.

The info sheet the dentist gave me did say something about avoiding hard candies and foods. My assumption was that the sealant could chip off and leave the tooth exposed. But trapping food underneath there sounds bad, esp on permanent teeth. Bummer, that stinks.

We had negative experiences with one of our 2 kids and sealants.....
Apparently if the tooth isn't 100% dry or something then bacteria can still be on the tooth and get sealed in so he got a TON of cavaties in his baby teeth......I'm not sure if that is how it went though, dental exertise I do not have!
Our other son was fine though

Yay...no cavities!!!!

I had sealants done when I was younger and never had problems with them. I've never had a cavity, either. Can't eat hard candy?? Is that for a certain period of time after the sealants are done or is that forever? I never had a problem with hard foods, but maybe the sealants that they do today are different than the ones they did when I was younger.

Thanks, Tara. He did mention how important it was for the teeth to be dry. Since she just had x-rays showing no cavities, I figure I should do it soon or right after then next x-rays in a year. He would only do it on her 4 permanent 6yo molars.

She had cavities in 6 of 8 molars with multiple surfaces for each tooth and one of them ended up being a crown. We are all motivated to stay as cavity free as possible.

[Sheherezade]

DS has bad molars, too, Nellie. The theory is that he formed his molars badly because he was hospitalized with the antibiotic resistant pneumonia scare at 17-19 mos. The middle of his molars are like jelly - but the outside is hard. The dentist thought it was so odd....she asked me if he'd had any high fevers as a baby because apparently that can mess up your molars. Uhhhh....YEAH??!! Like 6 weeks at 105? I have little hope for those teeth. Maybe that's why the sealants did nothing. My daughter hasn't had them (sealants) yet, but she hasn't had a single cavity. Same house, same food, same habits. Just goes to show you, life isn't fair.

Did it affect his permanent molars, too? She has my teeth -- very close together and most of the cavities are related to that (and lack of flossing). It is sort of a luck of the draw. Anna has her dad's teeth and they are nicely spaced and some aren't even touching. I had a lot of cavities as a kid, but if I keep up on it, seem to do better. I hope it is the same for her and we can have a fresh start with the permanent teeth. I just want to do anything that will help.

[Sheherezade]

Sadly...we don't know. Could be his whole back mouth will be unhappy. Poor kid almost had a root canal already. The dentist is very sympathetic. She tried to give him advice - like take candy from school home to eat and brush immediately after. Things like that to cheer him up. I think she thinks he's got a high risk mouth and needs to be extra vigilant. Fun for a kid, huh?

At least it's just cavities and not a peanut allergy, right? I hate to whine when I think of how rough those poor kids have it.

[DCJenn]

I had all of my molars done when I left for grad school (figuring that I was never going to be able to afford the dentist) and I haven't had a problem with them at all. I was also not warned about hard foods or anything like that either.

It doesn't take more than about 30 seconds per tooth (at least as I recall) so I can't imagine how they can't ensure that the teeth don't get wet in that space of time.

I loved mine and I'll get them again- they're finally starting to wear away, 16 years later.

Jenn

[PrincessFiona]

Yeah for the good dental visit!

You probably remember that we had the same issue with Alex a few years back and it was a real bummer. We got the big "brush his teeth more/don't give him juice" lecture from the dental hygenist. We pretty much did nothing different with Alex than we did with any of our others (who still haven't had a single cavity)...

kris