How common is Baby Bottle tooth decay?!
Question: How common is Baby Bottle tooth decay?
He's going to have to go to Children's Hospital and have dental surgery and have some front teeth removed. As he's only had them a short time, this seems pretty severe and i am wondering if this could be interpreted as neglect?
His Mother has been nursing him at night and I'd hate for this to be construed as a custody issue with her ex (which it will).
Answers:
Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is pretty common. Most parents do not realize or think that giving a child juice or milk before bedtime will do much harm, but all that sugar sits on their teeth while they are sleeping. I would say it is not neglect, but he should be seeing a dentist or at least his mother should be going to the dentist and learning how to care for her child's teeth. When a women who is trying or is pregnant we start then to inform them of all the stuff the need to do for their child's oral health. Using some type of fluoride in the water (just for this reason), when they should first see the dentist, bringing their child on the parents checkups to get the familiar with the dental setting and not afraid. So if the parent is aware of this and does nothing and still gives them cariogenic foods it can be considered a form of neglect. Just as an obese child is neglected because the parent should not be letting that happen.
RDH