Dentist missed cavities
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Anonymous
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My 5 year old had a dental cleaning recently and they found several cavities. My child has been seeing the same dentist for a few years now and we really like and trust the office. We’ve been good about cleaning and limiting sugary foods. But with the number of cavities my kid has, you’d think he’s going to bed with lollipops at night. I got the sense after I followed up with some questions that it was only now that they were able to do the xrays for those areas of the mouth (it wasn’t stated but sort of implied that maybe they tried to do them before). I’ve gone to every visit and I’m pretty sure they’ve never tried to give those xrays and had they, I know my child would have handled them. This is a kid who has no issues with medicine or tests like strep. I know our dentist can’t change the likelihood that my kid will have cavities but I feel like it was a big mistake on their part to not catch it earlier. And now we have to spend close to $1k to get this taken care of because of timing related to our insurance coverage, and have my child go through the process of getting fillings.
He had an X-ray done last year and don’t know why they didn’t show up then? There’s clearly nothing we can do now but take care of this but my question for the future is, what is the frequency I should expect for xrays in children? |
Anonymous
| Cavities in baby teeth are not a big deal at all. |
Anonymous
| X rays are once a year. It’s weird that you’re blaming the dentist for not catching them sooner. Probably they just formed since the last visit. It doesn’t take that long for a cavity to get severe enough to need a filling. |
Anonymous
| I am hesitant to even get a child’s cavity filled at all. Unless it’s a molar or a tooth in front with significant decay and pain, I may just leave it alone. |
Anonymous
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They can form pretty quickly - how effective is your kiddo at brushing? Maybe he’s not brushing as well as you did when you were helping more? Is he flossing? How effectively?
My kid has a ton of cavities. It’s awful. It’s also not anyone’s fault - we do our best limiting sugar and such but his enamel didn’t form properly on some teeth because he got an extremely high fever at 18months. We do the best we can. |
Anonymous
| OP, some kids are naturally prone to cavities despite your best efforts. My DD had about 5 cavities at that age, and she probably ate the least amount of sugar than all my kids. My oldest - who seemingly ate nothing but sugar - has had only one tiny cavity his whole life. My DD's cavities were found during her regular dental visits, so they can develop fast. |
Anonymous
| I would be more worried that the current recommendation is wrong, not past ones. Are these in baby teeth? Are you sure they need to be filled? |
Anonymous
| Cavities that show up on xrays are those that form between teeth? Are you flossing? They can form in a year if you’re not flossing the kids teeth. |
Anonymous
| Our pediatric dentist doesn’t do x-rays every year; she does a visual exam at each checkup, which I appreciate. |
Anonymous
| Get a second opinion. |
Anonymous
| Your kid is five and these are baby teeth. Cavities happen. And they can absolutely appear between visits. This is not a big deal. Why do you assume somebody messed up? |
Anonymous
Terrible advice. |
Anonymous
Why? If the tooth is going to fall out within the next year? I never ever had cavities as a child, ever, and never went to a fancy pediatric dentist or anything like that. And I ate sugary carb laden foods and candy. My thought is I probably did have cavities bit they just weren’t treated. Why do SO many kids have so many cavities now? I am fine now. |
Anonymous
| I think some dentists are being a little overzealous when it comes to treating children. Some cavities could probably be left alone. |
Anonymous
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My first year of college I had 10 cavities. And I brush and floss ALL THE TIME. So it can happen.
Is your son eating 2 bags of circus peanuts per day by chance? I, um, heard that might cause it. |