do you brush your kids teeth and how many cavities?

geemum

Sun, Oct 25 2009, 4:17 am

In my experience (not with my kids, but with siblings and friends) most of it is genetic.

My sister would brush her teeth regularly but she always had problems - cavities, week enamel etc

A friend would brush vigerously twice a day and also had problems.

Brushing can only help though. Someone who brushes and still has cavities - could you imagine what would be if he ALSO didn't brush!!???

Cavities or not, Children should be trained that oral care is a part of their routine!

cdawnr

Sun, Oct 25 2009, 8:10 pm

I put brush at least once a day osme cavities, but in truth that's only one of the kids. They all brush twice a day, but one of them has "defective enamal" and at just under 4 yrs old has already had 4 fillings.

(We also try to remembe to floss them, but it is sooo stressful)

greenfire

Sun, Oct 25 2009, 8:31 pm

what happened to twice a day ... my kids brush a lot more than the way I brushed growing up - the girlies have great teeth - sonny boy likes candy and learned to brush better later on so he had some cavities ...

Sun, Oct 25 2009, 10:09 pm

You also dont take age into account here, a child of 7 who doesnt brush and has no cavities may have them when they are 12.

The two main factors where you have less obvious control are genetics and I think more importantly... YOUR DENTIST.

Some dentists find more cavities than others.

octopus

Sun, Oct 25 2009, 11:39 pm

JC wrote:

yes, I agree. some dentists are drill happy. Every stain = a cavity, whether it is really one or not. That's why it's so important to go to an honest dentist.

anonymom

Mon, Oct 26 2009, 12:06 am

I didn't vote because we're somewhere in between every day and barely ever. On an ideal day, they brush. Many times they're too tired or I'm too tired, or whatever and it doesn't bother me to skip. Beli ayin hara, my kids have no cavities. I agree it is definitely genetic. My kids used to go to bed with bottles and their teeth did not rot.

Rodent

Tue, Oct 27 2009, 7:57 pm

It also makes a difference if they drink flouridated water or not (becoming more of an issue with people using bottled water in flouridated areas also).

Whilst genetics plays a part, flouride has had a big impact in our family. My mother had no flouride until age 26. She has many cavities, a few teeth out, root canals, cracked and broken teeth etc. She had no flouride while pregnant and my brother had no flouride in drinks until after a year. He had a bottle in bed until age 2. Had cavities as a small child and as an adult some cavities, one pulled and one root canal. Flouride always for me. Of the 3 my brushing has probably been the worst. Yet at 29 I have no cavities. My teeth may be yellowed and crooked but they're strong. It's hard to know what my father's teeth were really like. He had most of them pulled out at about age 10 after they rotted from a bout of measles.

I believe the enamel on my husband's teeth was damaged by really high amounts of antibiotics as a child. He has shocking teeth but doesn't look after them either.

In short, there are more factors than the amount of brushing that can come into play so not sure that this survey will be fully accurate. I must say that I'm shocked by the number of children with cavities though...

the world's best mom

Wed, Oct 28 2009, 9:39 am

My kids brush almost every night. Both of my girls slept with a bottle until they were two. One of them has no cavities and the other had so many that she needed surgery to pull out teeth, fill cavities, and make crowns. It seems preety genetic to me!