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Need your advice re. miscolored tooth in toddler


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Dd 16 months has a mis-colored front tooth. It has a greenish streak down the front and is greenish in the back. I also noticed it is more triangular than square like its opposite. The gum area next to it is flaming red and has a tooth emerging; the other side has the same sort of emerging tooth, but no inflammation. So, why the streak and different color on the inside of the tooth? Is it related to the red gum? From a fall or from a cavity??

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Thanks, Starr! Yes, your reserved, but cute baby who now gracefully and without screaming will bend her head so her brother can indeed hug/kiss her (the closest she has come to extend actual affection since she is getting so much!).

 

No medications and not a preemie. I'll post an update when I come back. It is hard to imagine it being form a fall (which of course she has had, but none stand out to me). However the tooth did not look like that before so perhaps. I am more worried from what I see on the back of it -and which I can barely see- as that looks totally greenish.

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My son had a few teeth come through with a green streak. It was a problem with malformed enamel he lost his front tooth all together. It crumbled first on the streak and then around the streak and up into the tooth,The tooth was as soft as chalk. He had an abscess above the tooth for a while too. It ended up being removed around his second birthday. I have been given 3 different names for the problem but I don't know for sure which it is. We have been told either amelogenesis imperfecta or enamel hypoplasia or something else I have forgotten.

 

He had two other teeth with the same problem but milder, we have been able to save them. One molar has had lots of fillings because they fall out regularly but seems to have stopped decaying. One of his lateral incisors has worn down to about half a tooth but hasn't gone any further. He has the odd other tooth with white patches on. They are in a good place at the moment and appear to have stabilised.

 

I have no idea why he has the problem the only thing I can think is that it could be because he had antibiotics a couple of days after birth or maybe because he had jaundice.

Edited by lailasmum
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We are back after a several hour round-about. Went to the local dentist who had suggested we come. Dentist looked (barely) at the front of her tooth and blabbered about tooth miscoloring etc. etc. He took off his gloves and was all done. I asked him to look at the back of her tooth (would that not be expected???) and then he totally changed his tune and asked me to go see a Pediatric Specialist. I should have let him know what I think about asking patients to come over if they can't deal with infants, but didn't.

 

So, off we went to the special Pediatric clinic and, boy, were they lovely people. They are used to having special needs patients, but as it happened then dd was exemplary and they were so impressed with her. Got also an x-ray taken and she has severe tooth decay all the way up her root. She also has infection and has been put on antibiotics until we remove her tooth next week. He suggested I could go to an oral surgeon, but I feel confident that it is an easy enough procedure that they can do with little fuss on some Novocaine. So, poor, thing will have to be without a front tooth for a few years to come.

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Nadia, my son knocked a front tooth out when he was 4. I didn't check into it but the dentist said orthodontists make little spacer teeth for kids. I'm not sure how young. Having it out isn't such a big deal once kids start loosing their teeth but it is so sad for us moms not to have their beautiful smiles when they are little. I wish I had asked about it because his teeth did seem to move over. Maybe it wasn't the missing tooth but I'll always wonder. It sounds like you are in good hands with the pediatric dentist!

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Starr, I haven't even thought about that. I'll ask about it. Sorry to hear about your ds. Right now, then I am having post-dental visit trauma pains and am feeling so nervous and restless for her. My whole body is nerves. I know rationally this is nothing special, yet it's dd's tooth and now the feeling of guilt is setting in. I should not only have gone in earlier, but should have done a better job brushing her teeth when she was younger etc. etc.

 

Dd is fine, btw. Not in pain or any discomfort.

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Starr, I haven't even thought about that. I'll ask about it. Sorry to hear about your ds. Right now, then I am having post-dental visit trauma pains and am feeling so nervous and restless for her. My whole body is nerves. I know rationally this is nothing special, yet it's dd's tooth and now the feeling of guilt is setting in. I should not only have gone in earlier, but should have done a better job brushing her teeth when she was younger etc. etc.

 

Dd is fine, btw. Not in pain or any discomfort.

 

Don't stress about what you could have done, the fact is you are helping her now. I firmly believe some people just get the short end of the stick when it comes to teeth. I take good care of my teeth, but I have cavities every time I go to the dentist (every 6 months). My kids all have great teeth despite poor brushing sometimes. My youngest was on meds that are known to cause teeth to crumble, and so far his teeth are fine, even the permanent ones. Who knows why some kids have issues and others don't.

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It sounds very like my ds's problem. I felt so guilty but there was just nothing we could do for that tooth other than pull it and get rid of the infection. He had been to our dentist about 8 times before we got referred and they did nothing as it decayed and crumbled until it got infected so you may not have gained anything by going earlier. I agree some people just get a rubbish deal on the teeth front. We switched over to squigle toothpaste which helped and did some other things I can write more about if you need me too.

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One of the first things we did was join this yahoo group which has tons of infomation on how to deal with dental problems in little kids. In the files section there is lots of information of what you can do aswell as in the messages.

 

We did Healozone on the Front tooth I think it slowed down the problem but was probably too late for that tooth. Was hard to find a dentist who offered it and not suggested or offered by our normal dentist.

 

Used Squigle toothpastes - we used the Tooth Builder one when ds was very little but switched to Enamel Saver last year.

 

Gave xylitol in order to try and reduce the bacteria. Did this with little xylitol mint things (though they were actually fruit flavoured as my son hates mint). Xyltiol raises PH and helps the tooth remineralise with the minerals in the saliva from the above toothpaste which also contains xylitol and reduces the bacteria.

 

Did the decontamination with mouthwash on a cotton bud as laid out in the yahoo group above.

 

Limited sugary things, no fruit juice or dried fruit, nothing gooey that could stick to his teeth.

 

Brushed many times throughout the day.

 

We now have a better private Dentist (rather than NHS, I am in the UK) who seems to be able to deal with small kids and has been really helpful at advising me when we had to have the tooth taken out. He was able to work on the two other teeth we had problems with rather than getting them removed. He may still loose the molar, it depends how late it is falling out I guess and whether his fillings keep falling out.

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Starr, I haven't even thought about that. I'll ask about it. Sorry to hear about your ds. Right now, then I am having post-dental visit trauma pains and am feeling so nervous and restless for her. My whole body is nerves. I know rationally this is nothing special, yet it's dd's tooth and now the feeling of guilt is setting in. I should not only have gone in earlier, but should have done a better job brushing her teeth when she was younger etc. etc.

 

Dd is fine, btw. Not in pain or any discomfort.

 

 

Dont' beat yourself up over it. Some kids are just more prone to things like that. I have identical twins that have had the exact same dental care over the years. One has had hardly any cavities, and the other had a cavity every.single.time. we went to the dentist when she was little. Sometimes it is just "luck" of the draw.

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I'd take the child to a dentist.

 

My daughter fell, and damaged a tooth when she was around two. it turned black - then an abcess in the gum above the tooth developed.

the root was dead, and she ended up having a root canal in order to save the tooth until her permanent tooth came in. (spacing.) the baby tooth still ended up having to be pulled when she was five and it was an empty spot for over two years.

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