Wait and see on a cavity on back molar for a 7 year old?

[Anonymous]

My DD has a small cavity on a back molar. She is already afraid of the dentist so he said that we could either treat it now or wait and see what happens but it could get worse. The back molars typically don't fall out until around age 12, so she still has to live with it for 5 years. Has anyone else waited and been successful? She flosses and brushes twice a day.

[Anonymous]

no, it could get worse and its more painful to fill.

[Anonymous]

Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

[Anonymous]

If it's small, it can be reversed. Avoid simple carbs and use a fluoride rinse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

Cavities actually can heal themselves- especially if they're small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

Cavities actually can heal themselves- especially if they're small.

Dentist here.

They can remineralize - but only if they are still in the enamel. If they've hit the dentin (next layer of tooth under enamel) they really should be filled. OP - do you know if this cavity is on the biting surface of the tooth or between the teeth? Can it be seen on x-ray?

If you are good at going every 6 months and the cavity is still in enamel I would probably just watch it.

[Anonymous]

If the cavity is in between the teeth but still on the enamel, won't it still "infect' the adjoining tooth?

[Anonymous]

We had them taken care of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

Cavities actually can heal themselves- especially if they're small.

Dentist here.

They can remineralize - but only if they are still in the enamel. If they've hit the dentin (next layer of tooth under enamel) they really should be filled. OP - do you know if this cavity is on the biting surface of the tooth or between the teeth? Can it be seen on x-ray?

If you are good at going every 6 months and the cavity is still in enamel I would probably just watch it.

Thank you for your response! It's in between the back molar and can only be seen on an xray as a dark spot. I don't believe that it's in the dentin - that wasn't communicated to me. To the PP who asked about why waiting, it's because my DD has had a couple of traumatic dental experiences already and perhaps when she's older she may be more equipped to handle a filling. I also don't know whether or not to do nitruos at this age.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, we did nitrous with my just 4 year old to fill 4 cavities (over 2 appointments). He did amazing, I couldn't believe it. No anesthetic either, another thing that I could not believe. Our dentist, who was absolutely fantastic, said that the nitrous can have analgesic effects. The other option was to knock him out entirely, which I definitely did not want to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

I'm not sure why there's so much hostility to a simple question, but you perhaps would wait on a baby tooth because it may fall out before the cavity becomes so severe that it muct be filled. I've heard of some kids losing all of their baby teeth by age 9, so you aren't talking about a ton of time. I know that there are no absolutes in dentistry and it seems like some pediatric dentists fill any little dark spot seen on an xray while others take more of a wait-and-see approach with baby teeth. I had one dentist who told me that my 5 year old had 7 cavities and that several of them needed caps. I went for a second opinion where I was told that only 2 needed to be filled and that none of them needed caps. There really is a lot of variance in advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

Cavities actually can heal themselves- especially if they're small.

Dentist here.

They can remineralize - but only if they are still in the enamel. If they've hit the dentin (next layer of tooth under enamel) they really should be filled. OP - do you know if this cavity is on the biting surface of the tooth or between the teeth? Can it be seen on x-ray?

If you are good at going every 6 months and the cavity is still in enamel I would probably just watch it.

Thank you for your response! It's in between the back molar and can only be seen on an xray as a dark spot. I don't believe that it's in the dentin - that wasn't communicated to me. To the PP who asked about why waiting, it's because my DD has had a couple of traumatic dental experiences already and perhaps when she's older she may be more equipped to handle a filling. I also don't know whether or not to do nitruos at this age.

Dentist again.
You can always wait 6 months and have another x-ray taken to see if the cavity has progressed. Despite what other - clearly non dental - people say on this board, not every cavity has to be filled. Especially in baby teeth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the hell would anyone wait? It's not like cavities heal themselves. I am afraid of the dentist too, but you know what? I go anyway. And that's what your daughter has to do. At age 7 she is old enough to understand that.

Cavities actually can heal themselves- especially if they're small.

Dentist here.

They can remineralize - but only if they are still in the enamel. If they've hit the dentin (next layer of tooth under enamel) they really should be filled. OP - do you know if this cavity is on the biting surface of the tooth or between the teeth? Can it be seen on x-ray?

If you are good at going every 6 months and the cavity is still in enamel I would probably just watch it.

Thank you for your response! It's in between the back molar and can only be seen on an xray as a dark spot. I don't believe that it's in the dentin - that wasn't communicated to me. To the PP who asked about why waiting, it's because my DD has had a couple of traumatic dental experiences already and perhaps when she's older she may be more equipped to handle a filling. I also don't know whether or not to do nitruos at this age.

Dentist again.
You can always wait 6 months and have another x-ray taken to see if the cavity has progressed. Despite what other - clearly non dental - people say on this board, not every cavity has to be filled. Especially in baby teeth.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I hope that all the good karma by providing free advice here comes back to you. Either way, it's much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

We had exactly the same situation at the same age. Our dentist told us that if it was one of the baby teeth that would fall out in the next couple of years, he wouldn't recommend filling it. Because it was going to be so many years before it came out, though, his recommendation was to fix it. He said there was a chance it would be just fine if left alone, there was no way to say for sure, but that if it got worse it could end with a root canal, which would be more traumatizing for him than having a cavity filled. We erred on the side of a filling, and DS was totally fine.

[Anonymous]

People, please brush your children's teeth twice a day for at least two minutes. And no, letting your toddler suck on his toothbrush for half a minute does not count as toothbrushing.