Why does a child have bad rotten teeth: reasons and salvation

Rotten, caries-affected and weakened teeth are not only an aesthetic problem.

Often they become the cause or consequence of serious diseases of internal organs and systems, leading to a decrease in their function and pathological changes. The psychological state of the patient also changes, discomfort appears when smiling, and bad breath appears.

There is a whole scheme that determines the relationship between diseased teeth and vital organs. Untreated caries almost always leads to serious heart and joint diseases, liver or intestinal dysfunction.

The problem occurs not only in adults; caries can affect barely erupted teeth in infants.

Bad teeth in a child: reasons

A child’s baby teeth rot for various reasons.
Some are impossible to influence, others can be easily eliminated by dentists and caring adults. Most often, destruction of the enamel, and subsequently the coronal part of the primary occlusion units, is facilitated by:

• Disorders of intrauterine development of a child. Developmental pathologies are formed due to maternal toxicosis, non-compliance with nutritional recommendations, and the use of potent medications.
• Early birth of the baby. Prematurity of a baby indicates incomplete formation of internal systems - in particular, weak thin enamel of baby teeth.
• Antibacterial therapy administered to a child in the first year of life.
• Poor hygiene. Lack of systematic cleaning after the first tooth erupts, improper care, and inadequate parental control.
• Unbalanced child nutrition. Predominance of flour and sweets in the menu, lack of fermented milk and dairy products, hard fruits and vegetables.
• Reduced immunity. Congenital or due to a lack of vitamins in the diet.
• Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, dysbacteriosis.
• Diseases of the endocrine system - diabetes mellitus.
• Previous infections - ARVI, chicken pox, scarlet fever.
• Pathogenic microflora entering the baby’s mouth from the outside. If family members have the habit of licking the baby’s spoon or pacifier, or kissing the baby on the lips.
• Poor ecology is a significant external factor that negatively affects the condition of the child’s teeth and general well-being.
• Heredity - parents or grandparents have bad teeth.
• Mechanical injuries, external damage to tooth enamel - cracks, small chips.

How to determine if a child has bad baby teeth

A child's rotten front teeth are immediately visible. These are dark or yellow spots of enamel, reddened gums, and damaged edges. But sometimes decay begins on the distant teeth - molars, premolars, and then you need to focus on indirect signs.

The fact that a child is growing bad teeth is indicated by:

• complaints of pain and discomfort - reaction to toothpaste, hot or cold foods;
• unpleasant odor from the baby’s mouth - putrid, pungent;
• change in enamel color - the appearance of dark stripes, yellow or dark spots;
• development of dental diseases - caries, pulpitis.

Any of the listed factors indicates the need for consultation with a pediatric dentist - a full diagnosis and timely treatment.

What to do with black teeth?

Many people are afraid to go to the dentist because they think: since the tooth has turned black, it will definitely be removed. This is wrong. A change in color is not an indicator for removal. On the contrary, modern technologies make it possible to save even almost destroyed teeth. What awaits you is not deletion, but the following procedures:

• General inspection.
  First of all, the doctor will determine why black spots have appeared or the tooth has darkened completely.
• Professional oral hygiene
  with comprehensive cleaning, selection of toothpaste and brush. This procedure is recommended for those whose teeth have become darkened due to poor care or poor nutrition.
• Removing damaged or caries-affected tissues
  , changing fillings, treating canals. In this way, the consequences of caries are removed.
• Installation of veneers, lumineers, intracanal whitening.
  These procedures are recommended for those whose front teeth have turned black (due to mechanical stress or caries).
• Removal
  is a last resort. Now doctors are trying to use the most gentle methods to restore teeth.

Keeping your teeth healthy is important because your smile affects the impression you make on other people. Therefore, it is advisable to follow a special “white” diet, which excludes staining of the enamel with different products, brush your teeth properly, choosing a brush and toothpaste as recommended by your doctor, and regularly visit the dentist for preventive maintenance.

Stages of decay of children's milk teeth

A child’s bad teeth almost always mean caries. The disease is distinguished by the type and depth of tissue damage. Dentists highlight:

1. Initial and superficial caries is the primary destruction of the enamel, manifested as white spots.
2. Visible carious lesions are medium and deep caries. Teeth rot quickly and stains develop into cavities. The child begins to experience pain. An unpleasant odor appears from the mouth.
3. Circular caries is the circular destruction of enamel and dentin near the gums. If left untreated, the tooth breaks and rots further to the root.

In particularly advanced situations, damage covers an increasingly larger volume of tissue, leading to serious pain and loss of the milk unit.

Bad teeth in a child: how to treat

Decay of baby teeth can be stopped. Especially if the parents quickly assessed the threat and brought the child to the children's dental clinic. Treatment options are different:

1. Remineralization of tooth enamel

   The doctor will apply a special gel to the baby teeth, which contains minerals to strengthen the teeth. Usually it is calcium, phosphorus, fluorine. The substances will restore the enamel structure at an early stage of destruction, but if the teeth are already rotting, the dentist will select a different treatment.

2. Sealing

   Cleaning out carious cavities and then installing a filling. The preparation method is selected according to the patient’s age. Modern dental clinics treat teeth without a drill - using the ICON method, as well as using classical methods.

3. Ozonation of teeth

   A method of disinfecting destroyed cavities followed by filling, when ozone is used to eliminate pathogenic microflora. The treatment has proven itself to work with children's rotten teeth, but is only suitable for moderate decay.

4. Laser therapy

   The disinfectant effect of a laser beam is an excellent way to disinfect a small cavity and remove bacterial microorganisms in the mouth of a young patient. Suitable for the treatment of moderate caries of primary teeth.

5. Removal

   A radical method of dealing with rotten teeth of a child. Used when it is impossible to carry out therapy and save teeth.

   Read also:  Anesthesia in dentistry: types and contraindications

Rodikova Tatyana
When parents are interested in why their child has bad teeth, I first of all ask about nutrition. Almost all children today eat sweets, chips, and drink soda without restrictions. Of course, this negatively affects the teeth. The second common reason is heredity. Congenital diseases and medications are less likely to damage teeth.

Why treat baby teeth?

Rotten baby teeth do not always attract the attention of parents. Especially if the pathological processes are painless and do not bother the child. Adults think that when the bite changes, the bad teeth will disappear by themselves, and instead of rotten teeth, normal molars will grow. Dentists warn about the fallacy of such a misconception.

Rotten milk teeth are:

• damage or destruction of tooth germs - a high risk that the root units will grow sick or not appear at all;
• early loss of primary occlusion units - leads to displacement of existing teeth, the appearance of crowding, and the formation of a pathologically abnormal bite;
• an ugly smile, an unaesthetic appearance - the appearance of complexes due to appearance in young children, decreased contact with peers, uncertainty, isolation;
• deterioration of diction - rotten, breaking teeth interfere with the correct movements of the tongue during speech, leading to a lisp, burr;
• gradual spread of infection - damage not only to the surface of the teeth, but also to the pulp, development of pulpitis, the appearance of an abscess, as well as a tendency to ENT diseases and gastrointestinal diseases.

Consequences

Rotting teeth primarily brings physical discomfort, inconvenience and pain to a person.

In advanced situations, destructive processes lead not only to infection of the entire oral cavity, but also to tooth loss . It is possible to develop diseases of the skeletal system and the appearance of polyarthritis.

Infection and bacteria-contaminated blood spread throughout the body, reducing immunity and causing disturbances in the functioning of the stomach, heart and even brain damage.

Such problems are especially dangerous for children and pregnant women. During the period of growth and development, pain and lack of microelements interfere with the normal formation of a healthy body of both the teenager and the fetus in the womb. The immune system is weakened.

How to prepare your child for an orthodontic appointment

The initial appointment with an orthodontist takes place without any preparation. The child just needs to brush his teeth and eat beforehand. The latter is desirable, as it will help reduce salivation and facilitate the examination procedure. The child should also be told about the doctor’s specialization. In simple words, explain who this pediatric orthodontist is and what he treats.

An orthodontic examination is a painless procedure. It does not cause fear or discomfort in the baby, but it helps to identify deviations in the development of the dentition as early as possible.

Soldatenkova Alina

Typically, the removal of decayed milk teeth involves the extraction of several units at once. At Azabuka, we recommend performing this procedure under anesthesia or sedation. It is completely safe for the child, and most importantly, it does not leave traumatic, unpleasant memories in the child’s memory.

Other causes of enamel darkening in children

Rotten baby teeth in a child look different in the photo. Usually these are black spots, lumpy enamel, deformed crowns - unpleasant, ugly, even creepy. But an unaesthetic appearance does not always indicate rotting. Sometimes the reasons lie in other diagnoses or pathologies:

• black plaque;
• enamel hypoplasia;
• abnormalities in tooth shape.

Black plaque - stains on baby teeth

Dark spots on teeth are not always tooth decay. It could also be:

• Priestley's plaque - appears due to the increased activity of certain bacteria that secrete a black pigment. The defect is aesthetic, but dentists advise cleaning the enamel from plaque, since it can prevent caries or other dental diseases.
• Dark deposits due to taking iron supplements are an aesthetic problem, which professional cleaning helps to cope with.

Dark pigmentation is also caused by dysbiosis, lack of calcium, and taking antibiotics. Plaque is removed using gentle dental cleaning methods, returning the enamel to its natural whiteness.

Enamel hypoplasia and tooth shape abnormalities

Hypoplasia manifests itself as a change in the structure and color of the enamel and is not a carious lesion. Is it congenital or acquired? In the case of systemic hypoplasia, the shape of the dentition units may also be affected. Externally, the pathology manifests itself as:

• an altered line of the tooth edge is a natural deformation, and not due to rotten teeth;
• barrel-shaped crowns, cone-shaped - due to changes in the tooth at the dentin level;
• spots on the tooth surface of different sizes and shades - altered enamel thickness, insufficiently developed tissues.

For isolated manifestations, hypoplasia is not treated. In case of severe defects in baby teeth, the doctor will suggest remineralization and filling of the affected areas.

Why does bone tissue decrease when teeth are missing?

Very often, when planning dental restoration using implants, we are faced with a deficiency of bone tissue, which is accurately detected during computed tomography:

Let's figure out what it is and why it happens

Let's start with the fact that bone is a living tissue, with its own laws of life. In the case of implantation, we are talking about the alveolar bone, that is, the bone of the alveolar process - the bone where the roots of the teeth are located. And when we talk about bone deficiency, we are talking about a deficiency of the alveolar bone. This bone provides support and stability to teeth. Its entire structure is aimed at stabilization.

And when teeth are lost, the need for this bone disappears and its resorption or resorption occurs. Loss of alveolar bone can also occur with preserved teeth due to periodontitis. The loss of bone tissue increases many times over when using removable dentures, since the denture exerts unusual pressure on the gum and bone, pressure for which the bone was not “designed” to bear. As a result, we are faced with a situation where the bone - where the implants can be installed - is missing or insufficient.

An example of what can happen to the bone tissue of a patient who had a tooth removed more than 15 years ago and did not go to the doctor only because he was afraid of the sinus lift procedure is shown in detail in my article “He was afraid of the sinus lift and waited... 15 (!) years"

We will talk about methods of treating adentia in the next article.

How to protect your child's teeth

Among the main preventive measures for the preservation of teeth in children of any age are:

• Maintaining oral hygiene to prevent plaque formation - timely care, selection of toothbrushes and toothpastes according to age, professional cleaning using gentle methods.
• Good nutrition - creating a varied menu that will include yoghurts, kefir, cheeses, vegetables and fruits.
• Selection of a vitamin complex according to age - independently or after consultation with a pediatrician.
• Timely visits to the dentist - pediatricians recommend coming for scheduled appointments every 4-6 months. This helps to identify caries and enamel destruction at an early stage and save teeth from serious problems.
• Fissure sealing - smoothing the lumpy surfaces of molars and premolars to reduce the risk of caries and rotting of distant units.

Rodikova Tatyana
Parents often have to explain: it doesn’t matter when the child’s bad teeth appeared - at 3 years old or at 7 years old - they need to be treated. Waiting until they fall out on their own is a big risk. Fortunately, in most cases the explanations work and we begin treatment. It's nice to see how a child's face changes when he sees beautiful, even, snow-white teeth in the mirror - instead of rotten and black ones.

It is also worth carefully monitoring the mechanical integrity of the teeth, since any crack or chip is a potential threat to the child’s dental health.

The health of children is the concern of parents. Poor heredity, diseases, premature birth indicate the need for careful monitoring of the condition of teeth - timely prevention and treatment. If everything is done correctly, then the child will not have rotten teeth, but only a joyful and beautiful smile.

Treatment

Dental treatment for children has its own characteristics:

• two-stage anesthesia - first the gums are numbed with a special gel or spray, and only then an anesthetic is injected, if necessary;
• ensuring a safe concentration of anesthetic;
• use of filling materials that are safe for children.

The algorithm for treating rotten teeth in children looks like this:

1. Removal of carious destroyed tissues using a drill or hand tools.
2. Rinsing the cavity with antiseptic solutions.
3. Filling a carious cavity with filling material.
4. Grinding and polishing the filling surface.

If a child has already developed permanent teeth and they are the ones that need treatment, most likely the doctor will install a standard light filling that will last for many years. Baby teeth are less resistant to abrasion; the dentist takes this into account when choosing a filling material. It should not be harder than natural enamel, otherwise, over time, the filling will protrude above the surface of the tooth.

Treatment of rotten teeth in children is often associated with problems if the child is afraid of the dentist. In this case, it will be difficult for the doctor to fully perform therapeutic procedures. Modern pediatric dentistry offers dental treatment under sedation. Through a special mask, the child is supplied with a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, which helps relieve anxiety and promotes relaxation of the body.

The use of general anesthesia is advisable if large-scale and long-term treatment is planned in one session.