is sweet and beautiful to me, but it has certainly been scarred by the tooth decay that we have been dealing with for about a year now.Good news! Owen's teeth have remineralized!
What does this mean for us? Well, Owen's teeth are still not perfect, of course, and we are still keeping up the same home care routine. His lateral incisors are almost invisible, but they are healthy and strong for the time being. We must keep a close watch on them because the protective enamel and dentin covers over the roots are much less than on healthy teeth. Hopefully, they will remain stable until they are ready to come out on their own to make room for his permanent teeth.
I have copied below a post that I made to the nutrition and kids dental email lists that have helped us along the way.
We noticed that my son's (now almost 28 months old) tooth decay about a year ago. It progressed very quickly, and within about a month's time, his upper lateral incisors went from whole teeth to nubs near the gum line. He also developed decay in his upper central incisors and on his first molars (which came in with yellow spots after that time). We initially tried working on his absorption using the GAPS protocol, including lots of stock while we were dairy free and 1/2 -1 t. HVCLO daily for him and 1 1/4 t. FCLO for me. We started 2x daily brushing with xylitol as well as rinsing with xylitol water after nursing to sleep and gum/mints after meals. We continued to see slow but steady progress in his tooth decay. We saw one holisitic dentist last August who wanted us to keep coming back but didn't have any ideas to change home care and didn't have any plans to do anything to my son's teeth in the office - just keep looking at them every 6 weeks. At a bit over 6 months from our last visit there, we saw another holistic dentist who agreed that my son did needed more that he could offer in his office. He recommended crowns and caps for his problem teeth and possible extraction of the almost gone later incisors. He referred us to a pediatric dentist who wanted to do 4 crowns, 2 caps, 2 extractions, and some root canals under GA ASAP. We were uncomfortable with the experience with her all around. Six weeks ago (only a few days after we saw the ped. dentist) we saw Dr. Hollander, who is just over an hour away from us (fortunately!). He did an exam, scraped some of the decayed material from the teeth, ozone treatment on 8 teeth, a Fl varnish, and filled the spots on some teeth that were collecting food and hard to keep clean with a temp. filling material. We added MI paste (no Fl) and Squiggle toothpaste (with Fl) to our home care routine. We went back for a follow-up visit Monday, and my son's teeth are hard! Yay! I wish we had known to look for O3 treatment a year ago. I think it took me a long time to decide we needed to use Fl. It is certainly a drug and ought to be respected as one. I'm not sure anyone could have convinced me a year ago to use it topically on my son's teeth. I *think* that everything we have done has played a part in getting Owen's teeth stable, but I really think O3 probably played the biggest role. S. mutans is just a really aggressive buggar. So, if any of you are on the fence about dealing with ECC, I would definitely suggest looking in that direction. Oh, and my son still nurses to sleep each and every nap and bed time. Afterwards, I rinse his mouth with a bit of xylitol dissolved in water. He puckers up and slurps and sleeps right through it. So we seem to have come out on the other side with our nursing relationship intact.
3 comments:
Owen's smile is beautiful Melinda. I didn't know about all the trouble with food allergies you and Owen have had (until you told me about it on Memmorial day). Owen is a wonderful boy and think that you are a very good mother. It must have been very frustrating (not strong enough of a word) to see your child live with some kind of problem and not knowing how to help him! Kristiyana has had environmental allergies for years now, and I am starting to think that there is more to it. I wonder if she has some kind of food allergy. I expressed my concerns to her pediatrician some years ago and left his office disappointed and frustrated. All he could recommend was drugs and more drugs. I didn't know where to look for help but reading about Owen's (and your) allergy to gluten makes me think Kristiyana might be dealing with something like that. Do you have any advice for me on where to begin? I thought about having her tested for food allergies, but I don't even want to go via the conventional medicine route anymore. I have lost trust for the "modern" medicine a long time ago. And I don't believe the tests they do! I think it is great that you have sent stool samples to that lab yourself. I am very happy for your and Owen's way to recovery and health. It gives me hope that may be I will be able to help my child with whatever it turns to be the problem with her health.
Rossitsa
I also want to add: It is a big step for me to put any kind of personal info on line. Even having a facebook profile was a stretch for me, but I realize that if you didn't have this blog I would have never known about your and Owen's journey. So... thank you! I am glad I finaly checked it out.
Rossitsa
Rossitsa,
I am glad to share our journey and even more glad that it might be some help to you. I would encourage you to look at the book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Natasha Campbell-McBride. It's not terribly long, and gives a good outline of her hypotheses on the workings of the digestive system (and how it relates to psychological issues such as ADHD and such). She also has a modified version of the specific carbohydrate diet that is a well-proven tool for digestive problems. As children get older, their bodies (and poop) become more mysterious to us, but she does explain what is normal and abnormal for poop, and I had no idea that Owen's mushy poops were not completely normal for a breastfeeding toddler.??? I think the new edition of the book has the diet guidelines in it, but they are also available online here: http://www.gapsdiet.com/Getting_Started.html
I think it is very important to move through the stages carefully but as quickly as possible to make sure the person doesn't get deficient in nutrients which can cause its own set of digestive and other issues.
If you are interested in the stool testing, we had it done through EnteroLab: https://www.enterolab.com/Home.htm
It is frustrating when the people you wish could help you are no use at all, and eventually I think many people do come to the same conclusion that you and I have, that you have to find the answers yourself. I hope that you can get to the bottom of Kristiyana's allergy issues and find something that will work for her.
I hope you all are doing well, and I wish we could see you sooner than Christmas. It's just to darned far away!
Melinda
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