Do I Get My 4 Year Old's Cavities Filled???

I have had my son's baby teeth cavities filled....

Should the cavity get worse before the tooth falls out, it could cause all sorts of not-so-fun stuff .

Good luck

My dentist believes that tiny cavities do not need to be filled. We have even had tehm go away However, when the cavity is big enough, it needs to be taken care of. Baby teeth are softer than adult. Of my older girls, one had a cavity that went away and one had a cavity that got filled--this was a molar though. She adult teeth are fine. My 7 year old has had both. A cavity on an upper molar was left alone and never needed anything. But cavities behind her front teeth were treated and a molar has a silver cap on it because a filling would have fallen out. My 3 yr old has cavities on his front teeth. Since he has 3 yrs to go before teeth fall out, we are treating them in June in one visit. THey will try to save them but might have to pull out if they could affect the adult.

Yes.
You get cavities filled.
You are surely not going to let the rot get worse?

There is a new school of thought that says you don't need to fill a cavity if it isn't too big, and if doing the filling will do more damage than the original cavity. My daughter has one the dentist didn't want to fill. It fell out last week, so she only had it about a year and never had any pain. If she had been in pain, I would have had them fill it. Talk to another dentist and see what they think for 3rd opinion. Or, do some research yourself.

Please DO NOT give FLUORIDE to your child! It has been declared a neurotoxin in The Lancet Neurology.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474....

Here is the full text for you to read. Fluoride in the mouth is useful and does good for the teeth, in the body itself it is poison! I wish we had better information for you about the fillings. Maybe call a dental school and see what their cutting edge information says.

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I have never heard of a dentist advising NOT to get a cavity filled in a baby tooth. If you do not get the cavities filled it can damage the adult teeth. My boys both needed a small filling on baby teeth and the procedure was not in the least bit invasive. They didn't need freezing for it.

Are you seeing a pediatric dentist?

Honestly, I have no experience here because my now 20yr old has never had a cavity.

I don't understand how a filling on a baby tooth could do any damage to a permanent tooth.

You have 2 opinions that are pretty far apart so I would probably see a 3rd pediatric dentist for a consult on this.

I would think a "big" filling would be a large amount of decay on the teeth. So at that point, I would be concerned with potential gum disease or other health issues that bad teeth can cause.

When the time comes for your daughter, I highly suggest the sealants to be put on her teeth to help protect from decay. It is worth every penny if you look at the cost of the sealant vs costs of crowns, root canals, losing teeth, etc.

Also.. prime example here.... my daughter saw a pediatric dentist from a very early age until about age 16 EVERY 6 months. Never any issues with decay, alignment, nothing. Then, about 3 yrs ago (age 17) our dentist moved and I had to find a new one. While on my search, I went to a local dentist with a good reputation. At that appointment, they told me that my daughter had 6 cavities that needed to be filled. I questioned them heavily about this and said that daughter had never missed a 6 month visit, never had a cavity, and her diet had not changed in 6 months. The dentist was defensive and provided a treatment plan to the tune of about $1500 and tried to sell me on a loan. We do not do loans...we do not pay partial payments.. we pay cash to get a discount. So at that point, I got out of that office.

Later, daughter had a toothache and we went to the new dentist I found and I liked, it was her first visit. Daughter was very upset thinking her teeth were rotted because we didn't do the fillings the other dentist suggested and the new dentist called me back to the room because she was so upset. I told him what happened at the other dentist. He had done a FULL check of ALL teeth and she had ZERO cavities. Her issue was her wisdom teeth beginning to move around.

So long story short, be very careful of dentist, especially one you do not have a good relationship with from the get go. We got her wisdom teeth out just after graduation and she has had no issues still with decay.. ZERO. I have no idea what the dentist was going to do about drilling on her good teeth.

Get another opinion!

The only time I've heard of a dentist leaving cavities be is if the tooth is one the child's about to lose anyways (already wobbly). We've done that.

So if your daughter was about to lose these teeth, I wouldn't bother. But if they are not wobbly (and where she is only four) I would fill them.

The best advice I ever had from a dentist was not letting our kids brush their own teeth until they are really old enough to know how to get the tough to reach spots. I made the mistake with my eldest thinking he was more competent than he was.

Good luck :)

When you have two conflicting professional opinions, it's time to get a third opinion from another professional. I'd ask another dentist. Maybe ask a pediatric dentist who specializes in treating kids and might see more baby-tooth cavities than dentists who treat all ages of patients.

There may be good reasons to fill these cavities so they don't continue to worsen; some kids keep baby teeth a long time and worsening cavities can cause a host of other issues. But we're not dentists here and we can't see (or understand) the extent or location of your child's cavities, so frankly, I wouldn't worry about getting online opinions from parents; I'd get to a third dentist and probably a pediatric one.

Yes, get them filled.

If you have not spoken to a pediatric dentist, please do so. My DD had 7 teeth filled when she was 4 (they got cavities where the molars touched) and has thus far not had any problems with adult teeth. Why would it cause problems? Baby teeth need to be cared for, even small cavities, IMO. Those teeth are placeholders for adult teeth and if they rot, or aren't in place, it may cause your child problems later. And, frankly, some dental problems can cause very serious health problems. My DD's cavities didn't hurt her, either, but they showed up on xray. I would get them filled. Even DD's precavity as an infant was treated to as not to continue the decay farther into the tooth.

I also agree that prevention is important. In our case, we had not realized the issues caused by not flossing her baby teeth. Now we know. Find out if it's just a genetic predisposition (I had soft enamel as a kid) or if it's something you are doing that could be changed.

When you get the answer to this question, I hope you also get advice about how to prevent more cavities in that spot. We were told it's from sucking on things throughout the day, leaving hidden deposits on the teeth. For example: juice or milk sipped through straws, gummy items that are bitten, etc. Best of luck.

New: Made a few changes in the comment above. Strange the mistakes you make multi-tasking!!!

You should definitely fill them. My son's teeth didn't start falling out until after his 7th birthday. You would hate for her to have cavities for that long. It could become extremely painful. Plus, since they aren't her front few teeth, they won't fall out until quite awhile after the others.

I have never heard of not filling cavities on baby teeth. I wouldn't use that dentist!

My daughter is 4 and a few of her friends have gotten fillings already.

My dentist said (when my son had a small cavity on a baby tooth) that since it wasn't hurting him or large--leave it be. The baby teeth could fall out before any pain/damage develops.
If the decay is massive I suppose THAT could damage the permanent tooth, I don't think filling it would do anything to the permanent tooth.
I like to choose the least invasive options.
Kids are checked every 6 months. If do a "wait & see" approach.
I DO know moms who have had their kids baby (teeth) cavities filled.

Yes you need to get them filled, otherwise they will continue to decay and could cause her a great deal of pain. I have never heard of a dentist recommending not having a cavity treated.

Do you have a pediatric dentist? Firstly, that's what you need.

I don't know about eye teeth. I do know about molars. You need to fill molars.

Is there flouride in your water supply? If there isn't, you need supplements. I promise you that it will help.

Not filling cavities in baby teeth can cause the decay to go into the jaw. Fill them.

seek a 2nd opinion from a pediatric dentist.
questions to ask:
1. how large (specifically how deep) are the cavities?
2. will the decay increase...affecting the permanent teeth?
3. at what age will these baby teeth fall out?
4. can the decay be removed & just a sealant be applied?
5. can the other back teeth get sealants?

Sealants truly are a great preventative choice. & most importantly, in this case, if those teeth are going to be there for a few more years..... do you really want to leave them untreated? Toothaches hurt like Hell...& decayed teeth have increased sensitivity! Good Luck!

Fix them. For goodness sake. Why would you want your child to have cavities rotting in her mouth and perhaps even damaging the teeth next to them?

I would ask the dentist about pulling them if you just don't want to bother or if her adult teeth are about to push these out of the way.

Our kids got their cavities filled and a year or so later they fell out so the filling only kept them from getting infected and abscessed but we had a 9 year old boy die a couple of years ago from a bad tooth. He was in a nearby town. I decided at that moment that I would always get the kids teeth done regardless. If the adult teeth were close then we'd get them pulled.