DS has little or no enamel on his teeth at all because I was sick when pregnant (mortified)

[whomovedmychocolate]

I took him to the dentists today for the first time. He's only got five and a half teeth at 11 months old and he's had such an awful time with teething.

The reason I took him was because today for the first time I managed to get a good look at his gnashers and they are really odd looking, sort of faceted rather than smooth, with patches of white and patches of sort of yellowy grey.

Dentist asked lots of questions about my pregnancy and about a recent viral illness he had which led to very high temperatures and lots of antibiotics and said it's probably down to what happened when he was still inside me and that's affected his teeth. It doesn't look like he's got much enamel on any of them.

I'm absolutely mortified. Poor little mite. I've been told to keep his teeth really clean and make sure he has very regular check ups and hopefully his adult teeth will be okay.

[southeastastra]

my ds(7) was the same. he had chicken pox at about 8 months old. adult teeth seem ok (touch wood)

[AnyFucker]

wmmc, this happened to my sister with her neice

my neice is now 17 and her teeth are great

she needed quite a lot of dental work when she was younger, but it worked out fine

[hippipotamiHasLost37Pounds]

My dd is the same - because I had the flu at the exact point during the pregnancy the baby was 'laying the enamel' (my dentist's words)

Other than having to take extra care with brushing (as in ensuring it was done very very well and supervise closely) it has not caused her any problems.
She is now in the process of losing her milk teeth and so far the two adult teeth that have come through appear to be fine.

My dentist did say that it would NOT affect adult teeth as it was a short term problem purely whilst the baby teeth were being made.
So fingers crossed!

[docket]

My ds has this too, they think because of a nasty bout of bronchiolitis he had at about a year. His incisors and back molars are affected, it wasn't picked up till he was two

I felt awful about it too but apparently it isn't uncommon and it doesn't mean that adult teeth will be affected.

DS' molars are actually so bad that they got capped but the whole process was absolutely fine/painless etc and he's thrilled with his 'bionic' teeth.

Don't be mortified. It's great that you are aware of so early on

[whomovedmychocolate]

Ah thank you. You lot are lovely sometimes

I had major problems in pregnancy and spent a month in at the end and several weeks before then. I suspect it was when I was admitted with severe dehydration after I caught some sort of virus and vomited continually for eight days straight.

Actually, I lost quite a bit of my tooth enamel during my pregnancies this way

[plonker]

My dd1 has had trouble with her baby teeth that our dentist put down to me being ill at the critical time during pregnancy.

On a bright note, her adult teeth (she is 9) are coming through beautiful and strong

Our dentist did put a coating on her back teeth to help strengthen them ...could you ask about that maybe?

Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine

[whomovedmychocolate]

Plonker - the dentist has told me to use the toothpaste with enamel in it to recoat them and to see her every six months for the next five years to reassess them - we have really good dentists thankfully. It's good to hear all these stories about them having nice permanent teeth. Now I just have to stop him getting such a lot of illnesses and having to have tetracyclic antibiotics!

[Hulababy]

My 7y DD has little enamel on her teeth too. Some of her back teeth are very yelllow brown.

She didn't get her first tooth til she was 13m. She has yet to lose any.

I was pretty sick in the early months of pregnancy. Another possible link I read about on MN was thats he was quite poorly with possible measles at 13m also - before her main teeth came through.

My dentist has never mande any cnnection to anyhing, and couldn't point it to any heredity links either. At present we are hoping it won't affect her adult teeth; dentist says it shouldn't.

[plonker]

Ah it sounds like your ds is being well looked-after

[Lizzylou]

Really?
Only my Mom was sick for 6 mths continuously with me and 7 mths with my brother (was put on a drip) and although her teeth suffered terribly I have only 1 filling and am 36, am pretty sure my Brother has none.

And I know that may sound like a weaning "Oh I weaned my 3week old on pizzas and kitkats and now they're adults and they are healthy" but I either feel very lucky or that it may not be due to your sickness.

Disclaimer, am not a dentist/doctor and could just be lucky.

Gosh, if it is due to your sickness, please don't feel guilty about it, it's not like it was in your control.

[Rachmumoftwo]

We are the other way round. DDs first teeth were lovely but her second teeth have little enamel due to trauma around the time of birth (when they are formimg). Nothing we can do except try our best to look after them and she will have veneers when she is old enough for them not to grow out every six months. Will cost a lot I imagine but what can you do?

[whomovedmychocolate]

Ah I think Lizzylou you are thinking vomiting caused this - no, well probably not anyway. I had pre-eclampsia, sepsis, high temperature, constant high blood pressure, as well as several months of vomiting a lot. It's likely it would have been the sepsis that did it though - I had a shedload of drugs to keep both of us alive.

But as you say it wasn't in my control and actually we both would have died without treatment leaving DH and DD on their own so I guess a few flawed teeth are worth it.

[Lizzylou]

Aah, right sorry.
Glad you're not feeling bad, so you shouldn't, and gosh how bad your pregnancy sounded.
As you say, a few flawed teeth are a small price to pay to have you both here and healthy.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Don't apologise, it's me who didn't explain myself very well.

[GeckoLovingHornedThing]

gecko has actuallyu lost her top tooth next to her teo middle ones iyswim
it just snapped off really close tp the gum
the middle one next to it looks like it is going to do the the same
one of her top molars on the same side is a shell of a tooth
the dentist prescribed flouride drops wihich I am having trouble getting

I am going to have a lot of heartache if/when her top fron tooth falls out/snaps off

[whomovedmychocolate]

Poor little gecko

[GimmeChocolate]

DD had very thin, soft enamel on her milk teeth because of antibiotics. She is now 10 and her adult teeth are coming in OK. Also she had no fillings in her milk teeth. The dentist said this may be because I only let the DCs drink milk or water usually - even fruit juice is rationed. This was because DS has ADHD and fizzy drinks and squashes tend to send him hyper as does too much citric acid - so unlooked for bonus was limited acid erosion on teeth!

[whomovedmychocolate]

Yes I'm looking at this as an opportunity to clean up DD's diet as well as DS's potential diet. Because if he can't have sweets etc. it'd be unfair to give them to DD, so it'll be good for both of them