Fluoride in water and toothpastes can often be the best protection for children against tooth decay and cavities.
When parents ask our pediatric dentist team, “Is fluoride bad for you? What about my toddler?” they usually have heard rumors of an infamous “fluoride toxicity.” If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then fluoride is a dentist’s. It has consistently been used as one of the best ways to prevent cavities, and it is one of the few ways to reverse early tooth decay completely.
Fluoride and Tooth Decay Treatment
It may surprise some parents, but even kids as young as two or three years old can get a cavity. When dental plaque builds up on their teeth, bacteria strips the enamel of calcium and other minerals crucial in keeping it strong. This weakened enamel can’t hold back the bacteria anymore. Decay begins eating it away until it eventually breaks through, creating a cavity. From there, it can continue attacking the softer, more vulnerable dentin and dental pulp underneath.
Fluoride is a natural mineral often found in water that helps restore minerals to teeth that have been decayed. With very early dental decay, fluoride can remineralize a tooth enough to reverse the damage. Even if decay hasn’t gotten a foothold on your toddler’s smile yet, fluoride can be invaluable for bolstering their teeth’s protective barrier against plaque and bacteria.
For the past 75 years, cities across the United States have been boosting the fluoride content in these communities’ drinking water. Bellflower is no exception. Fluoride in water alone has been estimated to reduce childhood dental decay by 20 to 40%. Fluoride is also commonly added to toothpastes to give an even better boost to enamel’s fight against tooth infection and decay.
What Does Tooth Decay Look Like?
For fluoride toothpaste to be effective, your child should start using it before a cavity appears. This can require keeping a close eye on your toddler’s smile for signs of tooth decay. Early dental decay appears as white spots or patches on the tooth’s surface as demineralization makes its mark. These spots can sometimes be easy to ignore, especially for cavities in less visible areas like rear molars or between teeth. However, later tooth decay stages come with much more prominent symptoms that are hard to dismiss, either by you or your toddler.
Once a cavity forms, there’s no going back for the tooth. Cavities are physical holes in the enamel, and they can’t be repaired or reversed with a remineralizing toothpaste. These holes continue to deepen as more of the softer inner dental tissues are destroyed. If your toddler experiences any of the following cavity symptoms, then they’ll need to see our pediatric dentist for treatment:
Visible pits in the baby tooth
Sudden toothache, which can come and go
Tooth pain when biting down
Sharp or lingering sensitivity to hot, cold, and sweet foods
White spots darkening or turning black
Are Baby Teeth More Prone To Cavities?
Baby teeth don’t need to be as durable as permanent teeth because they’re only meant to last 12 or 13 years at the most. Therefore, they have a thinner enamel layer, which allows cavities to form much faster than with adult teeth. 42% of children 2 to 11 years old have had at least one cavity in their baby teeth. Once dental decay sets into your toddler’s smile, it’s crucial to work quickly to reverse the damage before it reaches that point of no return.
Children are also more likely to get cavities because they’re still learning the right way to use their toothbrush and dental floss. Until they master the techniques, like brushing in circles for two minutes and flossing in C motions, they’re going to miss some spots. If those missed spots become a habit, then it won’t take long for decay and cavities to set in. How long does it take for a cavity to get bad? Depending on several factors, like your child’s dental habits, diet, and genetics, tooth decay may need emergency treatment in a few months or years.
Dental Fluorosis
Like all things, you should only give your child fluoride products in moderation. Just as fruit juices are great for your child here and there, you shouldn’t give them a glass with every meal. However, while juice overload can lead to dental cavities, too much fluoride can lead to a condition called dental fluorosis.
What is dental fluorosis? It’s the appearance of white streaks or spots on a child’s teeth when they come in. Excess fluoride can be absorbed into the gums, where it can affect growing teeth’s development. Then once the primary or permanent teeth emerge, they already show the signs of fluorosis. Fluorosis can’t appear after a tooth has already erupted from the gums, and it never occurs after age 8. If you notice your child’s teeth growing white spots, it’s not fluoride’s fault; it’s tooth decay’s.
Is Fluorosis Dangerous?
According to the CDC, less than 1 in 4 people between 6 and 49 have fluorosis. However, most cases are so mild that only a dental professional can see the signs. Only 2% have anything more than small white enamel spots. And less than 1% have “severe” fluorosis, which can cause rough, visible pits in the enamel.
Finding The Balance
To get the most out of your child’s fluoride treatment without risking fluorosis, you should always follow the amounts recommended by their dentist.
2 Years and Younger
Pediatric dentists used to suggest fluoride treatment only be given to children starting at age 2 or 3. However, recent studies show that a little bit of fluoride when baby teeth first appear can be a safe and healthy way to strengthen these teeth. Make sure to use no more than a rice grain-sized smear on the toothbrush. At such a young age, your infant won’t be capable of spitting out their toothpaste. Be sure to gently tilt their heads down to let the toothpaste dribble out into the sink.
3 to 6 Years Old
Once your toddler is about 3 years old, they can start spitting on their own. As such, you can up the amount of fluoride toothpaste they use to a pea-sized dollop on their toothbrush. You should continue to watch their brushing to ensure they don’t swallow any.
6 Years and Up
By 6 years old, your child can be trusted to add a fluoride mouthwash into their routine if suggested by a kids dentist. Most kids around this age can now completely spit everything out, even without parental supervision.
Dealing With Cavities
Is It Necessary To Fill Cavities In Baby Teeth?
Unless the baby tooth is about to fall out, you should always listen to your family’s dentist about cavity treatment. Just because a permanent one will eventually replace a baby tooth doesn’t mean that existing decay won’t be painful or even dangerous for your toddler. Cavities left unchecked can eventually lead bacteria to spread to the rest of the mouth, including the waiting adult teeth. So what does dental decay treatment involve?
When decay hasn’t yet breached past the enamel layer, your child won’t need anything more than fluoride treatment and a good brushing routine. Your kid’s dentist will keep a watch on the infected tooth to ensure the damage gets repaired. However, if a cavity forms, your child must see one of our Bellflower dentists for professional care. Most cavities are small and only need a simple dental filling. The diseased parts of the tooth are removed before the missing tissues are replaced with composite resin. If the cavity covers a significant area, we may recommend a dental crown instead.
When the decay reaches the central pulp, a simple tooth filling or crown won’t be enough. Our dentists will need to perform a root canal to remove the diseased and sensitive inner tissues. Depending on the cavity’s severity, we may need to clear an entire tooth root or two to ensure all of the infection is gone. If a dental abscess forms at the tooth’s tip, a root canal can also drain it.
Should I Have My Child’s Tooth Extracted?
It’s understandable if you’re worried about hearing your child’s dentist recommend a tooth extraction. Having a tooth removed can be nerve-wracking for anyone, but especially a child. Dental extractions are always a last resort meant for the worst dental emergencies. However, Just like you shouldn’t wait to have cavities treated in baby teeth, you also shouldn’t ignore your pediatric dentist’s recommendation for a tooth extraction.
Leaving a severely infected and diseased baby tooth alone until it falls out on its own can have disastrous consequences. We may even need to extract a permanent tooth as soon as it comes in if decay from the baby tooth’s cavity has significantly damaged it. By pulling the tooth, we can put an immediate stop to both your child’s tooth pain and their tooth infection’s spread.
