Toddler teeth

[ema-adama]

My 2 year old has slightly yellow front teeth. He hates brushing his teeth, although he is getting better at the game of it, imitating what myself and my husband model.

He has never had sucrose.

I am not sure I want to subject him to the trauma of a dentist if it is just a colouration issue.

So, my question. How do you tell the difference between tooth discolouration and tooth decay?

[MinorityView]

My daughter claims that children should not brush their own teeth until they are quite old. She still brushes and flosses her 6 year olds teeth every evening. Her 10 year old now does her own, I'm not sure when the switch took place.

Yellow isn't usually a sign of decay, but you probably need to do some further research, perhaps look online for pictures of tooth decay?

[ema-adama]

That is interesting about children not brushing/flossing until they are older.

I have tried him having one brush, and me the other as I try to get in and brush his teeth, but nope. He will not let me do it. I am using the Weleda childrens toothpaste, which he loves. I think the taste of the toothpaste is the only reason the toothbrush goes inside his mouth.

He fights me doing anything on his head. No hair washing, no hair brushing, tying up. No face washing or teeth brushing. I feel awful that I am not brushing his teeth more thoroughly, but it would require pinning him down, which I am not sure I am ready to do.

I looked on google images, and the images are horrific. His teeth are very sturdy and in place and nicely placed. Just the front two are a bit yellow up near the gum.

[MinorityView]

My grandkids aren't crazy about having their teeth brushed, either. They get a story told to them while it is being done and they'll hold still for that.

The bit of yellow is probably from not getting brushed thoroughly enough. Difficult that he doesn't like being touched around his head.

Does he like being sung to? Sometimes children will cooperate with stuff like hair brushing if they have a particular song that goes with the process.

[bbrandonsmom]

I agree w/ MV about the coloring just from needing brushing more. I have a 2yr old too :) It can be a battle sometimes with both of mine. I'll let them brush, but then go over it myself again, or I go first, then they do it. There are times I basically have to hug my 2yr old against me and brush his teeth. There is a song called "brush your teeth" on the Playhouse Disney cd by the jojo's? I have no idea who the show is, but they seem to have some fun songs. Maybe you can find just the song online and download it for ds?

[ema-adama]

Hmmm, a song MIGHT work. I'll have to try that. We do have a bedtime song, and teeth brushing happens as part of the bedtime routine....

Luckily with his hair he has silky beautiful locks despite no washing/brushing. People are amazed that his hair been washed maybe 2 -3 times in his life and I brush his hair for special occasions - like once every two months or do. :unsure: I think we might have to cut it for the summer. He refuses to have it tied up, and it gets *hot* here.

Thanks for the advice/thoughts. I'll see how it goes tomorrow.. he is already asleep for tonight.

Also any thoughts on the refusing having his head touched thing? I am guessing it is something sensory..... although it seems fairly common from what I have heard from friends and read online.

[RandomName]

I do/did insist on brushing my kids' teeth at that age; it's too important to let go imo, and they don't usually do it well enough themselves till around age 6 or 7, according to our dentist and borne out by what I've seen so far (my 6-y-o can brush her own pretty much now, but every once in a while I still help). But it stinks when they are strongly opposed...btdt. It does get better as they get older, though.

One thing that helped us is to sing, "We are brushing [x] off, [x] off, [x] off; we are brushing [x] off of [Kiddo]'s teeth." I start off, then they like choosing what [x] is for each verse...sometimes real things they ate that day, sometimes favorite things they'd like to eat/drink!, sometimes silly things (I've brushed elephants off my son's teeth before :chuckle:) Do a half dozen or so verses, and usually that's adequate brushing.

afa the head touched thing, is he maybe worried about getting water in his face, even just a splash?

[gilima]

3 of my kids have had cavities in their baby teeth and with the first one I didn't realize it was a cavity since it just looke like yellowing and just like I wasn't brushing well enough. one of my kids also had some discoloring on his 2 front teeth which actually went away on it's own. You might want to check it out if it doesn't get better from brushing. But you also might want to research what the dentists usually advise or want to do to "treat " these milk cavities and also the alternative of healing cavities and strengthening the teeth with nutrition. I know you are very knowledgable and probably feed him amazingly well, so it is probably nothing.
Thanfully one of my kids who had baby teeth cavities has really beautiful, straight and strong permanent teeth, not one cavity. the two others still have some baby teeth, but also looking good so far. I supplemented them with minerals and vitamin A & D and stopped using regulartoothpaste except for xylitol gel mixed with a little bentonite clay or sometimes a herbal mix that also contains xylitol, zinc, magnesium, etc;

[ema-adama]

Thanks for the replies. I tried to hug him, sing to him, make it into a game. Nope. He is having none of it :( I will keep trying, also with DH who might have better luck. I guess it could take a while for him to get used to the idea....

I am also guessing that if he is getting cavities in his baby teeth it is more related to my diet when I was pregnant, than to his diet now. He has a good diet, and eats a wide variety of fresh foods, including organic, grassfed ghee. I have managed to keep cakes, sweets, bamba (deep fried peanuts that Israeli's LOVE) and icecream far away from him. He loves his salads, majadera, livers, marmite, kimchi and chicken soup. He also does love pasta (organic wholewheat or brown rice). All foods that I never would have thought a toddler would eat. Much to the amusement of my family who think I am a complete idiot and a nasty depriving mother. I have been meaning to read more about xylitol in toothpaste. I don't know if I can get that here in Israel.

[TanyaL]

Is it possible it's tartar? I had quite a scare when my son developed these light brown-ish areas very suddenly, made appointments with two holistic dentists to learn that it was tartar. For us, it provided some interesting starting points for looking into nutritional/health imbalances in the kids.

eta: Probably since I know my diet, and overall health were quite inadequate while I was pregnant with both kids, I may attribute more to current nutrition than is warranted. But for us, figuring out quirks of each of the kids, ways that their nutritional/health needs aren't typical, and supplementing accordingly, has been helpful, at least I think it has. I think it's easier when kids' overall health is weaker, though, so it may be easier for me than for most.

[ema-adama]

I have the name of a paediatric dentist in our town who sounds open to a more natural approach. Although she uses X-ray, and I am not sure that is something I want DS subjected to just yet.

What did you do with the tartar? Does it go away?

Tanya, I am in awe of your ability to figure out what each child needs nutritionally. I just keep going with fresh local foods and hope that I am covering my bases.

[ema-adama]

Update on teeth brushing. We had a serious go if it this evening, and I *think* his teeth look a little less yellow... I am hoping as it becomes more a part of his routine, he won't fight it so hard. :(

[MinorityView]

If singing isn't working, try telling a story. Start the story with him on your lap and the toothbrush ready. As the he becomes absorbed in the story, say, now I'm going to brush your teeth, but I'll keep telling the story. Maybe he'll wriggle a bit less.

Of course for you, holding a kid and brushing his teeth and telling a story all at the same time is probably major overload!

[ema-adama]

Hmmm, I like that idea. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks

[TanyaL]

Its not gone away for my kids, but it's not getting worse either.

Another option, if it is tartar, may be gut health and bile. JaneS over at MDC had some links between the two and although I never looked into it very deeply, it seemed to fit my DD's situation since I've been able to see for a while that her gut health isn't great. But I'd think you'd see signs of that--I could tell by DD's poop color and consistency that things were off, and for us, lots of kimchee helped with both aspects.

And really, DD is 6 and DS is almost 4, it's taken quite a while to get most of a handle on things, and there's been a lot of reading and going hmmm, what the heck is going on? And lots of poring over old threads, or searching for words by specific users to see if I could piece together things.

Xrays may not be routine at every visit. Especially with squirmy toddlers, I wouldn't think a dentist would try it unless they were concerned about a specific thing--for the ones I saw, they could tell it was tartar just by looking and tapping/poking just a bit. Getting a good xray with a kid who wants to move would be really tricky!


I have the name of a paediatric dentist in our town who sounds open to a more natural approach. Although she uses X-ray, and I am not sure that is something I want DS subjected to just yet.

What did you do with the tartar? Does it go away?

Tanya, I am in awe of your ability to figure out what each child needs nutritionally. I just keep going with fresh local foods and hope that I am covering my bases.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Tooth health and immunity is intricately associated with the immune system, which is why people with really bad tetanus suddenly develop huge cavities in their teeth....

[ema-adama]

I now think the marmite might have something to do with the yellow on his teeth, as it has pretty much gone away with brushing. And he hasn't had marmite for a couple of days.

I think DS is still too young for a story about brushing teeth. He turns 2 today, and stories don't mean much to him unless there is a picture.

Argh! I still agonise about whether to take him to the dentist. I have become a ditherer.

[MinorityView]

Sorry, the story itself shouldn't be about brushing teeth. It should be about something that your son really finds entertaining. Does he have a favorite book with a character he likes? You could extend the adventures of the character.

[ema-adama]

At the moment he loves On The Day You Were Born, The Tomtem and Owly... I think Owly would be the best bet, although owls don't really have teeth? He loves cats and dogs.... I'll see how creative I can get. Thanks MV

[MinorityView]

No, really, teeth don't have to come in to it. Any owlish adventure will do. The principle is to distract from the awful experience of mom roughing up teeth with a brush, so a story that doesn't mention teeth might even be better.

Although, when my grandson came over, I did tell a story about a dragon who had tooth decay and had to get a dentist to pull one of his thousand teeth and then the poor dragon had to start brushing all 999 remaining teeth every day, which seriously cut into his time to go out and eat people's livestock. But Loren is 6 and doesn't really mind having his teeth done, he just considers that a story is one of the perks.

[bbrandonsmom]

Well, this is older, but have any of you come across black lines or spots on the teeth? I discovered today, that my oldest has this faint line of what look like black dots that form a line, on his front bottom 4 teeth. All I can find (even from dentist), is that it's either something to do with an old injury, something effecting the immune system when those pairs of teeth were coming in at the time, a type of calcium deposit for people not prone to cavities, or plaque-but usually not plaque.
I don't know why I'm only noticing them now. I check his teeth daily after he brushes them. The lines just might not have been dark enough to notice. I started to wonder if the teeth do that prior to falling out? It's the oddest thing.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Never heard of it. But since you can't do anything about it, don't sweat it...