1 year old with dental cavities.

I am adding updates to the top of this post.
Please scroll down to view earlier posts. 

13 Apr, 2011:

A very nice lady at Sensishield wrote back to me this morning. Not only did she say that they saw no reason why (under careful use and parental guidance) the toothpaste wouldn’t be detrimental to Eliza, but she also offered to send some complimentary tubes to my mother-in-law in advance of her visit next week! Very, very kind.

In other news, I am seeing no further evidence of decay on Eliza’s teeth. Her gums are looking much better. Over the last two weeks the gums above her top two right teeth had bled from time to time (not sure if it was the use of acidity of the hydrogen peroxide, or the abbrasion of baking soda, or the brushing itself, or simply inflamed and unhealthy gums).

We bought some yoghurt for her, in the hope that an oral injection of good bacteria might add to our fighting efforts. Unfortunately, she’s not interested in yoghurt.

This Friday will be two weeks that Eliza has been on her homeopathic medication and Cod Liver Oil.
Frank’s mother suggesting using Flax Seed Oil as a vegetarian alternative to the CLO … but I paid $26 for the CLO, it tastes of lemon (more chemicals, I know … but at least she doesn’t spit it out!!), and I’m going to finish it before I buy anything else.
I bought some Purslane seeds to plant this year. Purslane is rich in Omega 3 and fat-soluble vitamins A and E.

With any luck, the CLO will take us through to a rich summer supply of Purslane.

10 Apr, 2011:

Here are photos. ALL BUT THE FIRST ARE EXAGGERATED!!!
I touched them up in Photoshop (colour-enhanced) so that you could clearly see where the issues are.

How  her teeth look under bright light – they’re a bit darker normally

worst visible ‘pitting’ in tooth on the far right (her left)

I want to say that the tooth actually came through with some less severe holes in it. I saw holes (not discoloured) coming ‘under’ the gum as the tooth was coming in.

The black circle on the centre-right (her left) tooth alerted me to the issues.
The darker ‘yellowish’ areas (image-enhanced) in all but the very outside of her show where the backs of her teeth have become somewhat ‘hollowed out’.

08 Apr, 2011: 

I’m so excited!!
I just read about SensiShield. It’s a toothpaste which appears only available for purchase in the UK. It re-calficies teeth!!

From their website: “The Advanced Bio-Technology formula of SensiShield replicates the way saliva in our mouth naturally re-calcifies dentine and tooth surface enamel. SensiShield achieves this more quickly and effectively than nature itself.” 

This sounds like the PERFECT solution!  

I wrote the following message to them, and we’ll see what they have to say: 

To Who it May Concern: 

I was thrilled to learn of your Sensishield product today. 

My nearly 14-month old daughter suffers from improperly calcified teeth. From the very extensive research I’ve done, the only thing that makes sense is to trace it back to a fever I had while pregnant, which caused deformed enamel.
As such, despite having access to nutritionally rich foods, and next to no refined flour/sugars, it has taken the smallest things to cause 4 of her teeth to severly decay. Children her age who eat very nutritionally poor diets have had none of the issues she has. 

Do you have any reason to believe that Sensishield would be dangerous for my daughter?
The dentists here in the US have suggested strong fluoride treatments for her, but the debate on fluoride still rages, and despite my willingness to apply very small amounts of fluoride toothpaste to her teeth topically, the suggestion of larger ‘doses’ makes me more than a bit nervous. 

The web description of your toothpatse and its saliva-like functions have made me very excited. 

My mother-in-law will be visiting us from the UK in 10 days, and I have already requested that she pick up a few tubes from Boots, but I thought I should seek your thoughts as to any potential causes to NOT use this toothpaste with an infant. 

Our diet includes calcium-rich vegetables, which I understand to be the most easily metabolised of the various forms of calcium.
We are also vegetarian, so the proteins which I believe cause the body to leech calcium from the bones (in an attempt to neutralise the more acidic bodily environment) are not present.
This is all to say that everything is in place within her body to support healthy teeth – we just have an unfortunate situation (I’m happy to call it a defect) on our hands, and I’m trying to do everything possible to ensure that we get another 7 years out of her teeth!! 

At present, she is threatened with general anaesthetic, dental drilling, fillings, and crowns.
Of course, I’m not asking you to advise me to NOT pursue this surgical route (I’m not totally adverse to the idea – just feel that we can possibly deal with it in another manner), 

My only question to you: do you know of any reason why your toothpaste should NOT be used in conservative topical amounts to a 14-month-old.
I hold you free from any liability for your response, just request an honest answer.
If you would be interested in following this case, I would be happy to provide you with more information to use as a case study. 

   

Faithfully, 

Rebekah.
Ex-Londoner living in small-town USA. 

 

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05 Apr, 2011: 

“”Environmental” enamel hypoplasia is a related condition, in which the ameloblast cells that make tooth enamel were affected by an event such as fever, malnutrition, or hypocalcemia in the patient, while the teeth were forming. This may occur during fetal development or early childhood, and a dentist can estimate the timing of abnormal enamel formation by the area and teeth affected.”  ~http://www.toothiq.com/dental-diagnoses/dental-diagnosis-enamel-hypoplasia-overview.html  

In the middle of the US Swine Flu scare in 2009 and while I was 6 months pregnant, I got sick.
Not sure if it was THE flu or ‘a’ flu … but it was pretty horrid.
I came down with it on Sunday November 15th, had a fever that got up to 100.6 degs F, and didn’t get over it until four days later. The safe upper limit for a fever while pregnant is 101 degs F. If your fever gets to this temperature, you’re supposed to go to the Emergency Room.
I wasn’t able to eat a great deal, and I  was taking Vitamin D as an immune-system-support, which I read causes issues with Calcium absorption. You can read more about my fever while pregnant by clicking this link. 

I can’t help but wonder if all of the issues stem from this single event: her enamel was deformed in utero, which coupled with genetic predispositions to calcium deficiencies, and access to lots of fruit (nutritionally healthy, but not necessarily so good for teeth), made her teeth the perfect candidate for rapid decay.
It’s the only thing so far that has made sense. 

Note: Maria wrote to say that her son’s dental issues, which I mentioned in my first post, were blamed on the exact same thing – fever. 

 

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04 Apr, 2011:
I received clarification on duration of the Mezereum treatment: 3 months; one day on, one day off. 

This will be coupled with Tissue Salts #1 & #2 1x each, 3x day every other week for the same duration (3 months). This is 1/4 of the normal doseage, and was recommended by a 90-yr old homeopath who has been a family friend for decades. 

Despite being a vegetarian family, we have made an exception to include Cod Liver oil (1/4 teaspoon after each meal) as a medicinal treatment. I will be researching alternatives to this, however. 

The biggest trick is going to be altering Eliza’s diet (which is very limited at the moment) to encorporate such extreme amounts of vitamins/minerals. I am hoping that increasing my own intake will increase the amounts in my breastmilk, thus increasing her intake.
But I am not going to pretend to be sure of the amounts that are passed on in this manner. 

Based on the research of Ramiel Nagel, I need to be ingesting 2.5g calcium and 4g phosphorus per day.
He cites the following formula for good teeth.
Good Teeth = Phosphorus + Fat Soluble vitamins A, D, E, K – Processed foods/sweets (nutritionally void, and arguably toxic). 

According to http://nutritiondata.self.com/mynd/mytracking/tracking-analysis, having the following would provide me just shy of the 2.5g Calcium, but only 2.4g of the recommended 4g Phosphorus.
It would exceed the daily recommended amounts for nearly all minerals/vitamins except for B12 (93%), Pantothenic Acid (85%), and Sodium (51%). 

2 apples
14 carrots
2 eggs (raw)
4 c. whole milk (I really wish I could have access to this quantity of raw grass-fed goat’s milk)
1.5 tsp Cod Liver Oil
3c. Kale
1/2 c. sesame seeds
1/2 c. sunflower seeds 

What scares me about this, is that 48% of calories are from fat(!!!!!!!), and the total calories are 2251(!!!!!).
The total amount of fat is 751% of the recommended daily amount! That should make anyone’s eyebrows raise!! 

I can reduce the amounts of f I were to add a salad comprising 1 head romaine lettuce, 4 tomatoes, 3 medium white mushrooms, I’d reduce the overall calories from fat to 45%, and increase the calories from carbs from 30-odd% to 41%.
Phosphorus intake would be increased to 2.7g … but that’s still quite shy of the recommended 4g. 

 

31 Mar, 2011:
At the end of February, I was tickling Eliza’s neck. She threw her head back as she was laughing, and I noticed a black circle at the back of her front center-left tooth. 

On closer examination I noticed that the tooth to the left of that seemed almost hollowed out at the back.
A dentist’s appointment yesterday confirmed that all FOUR of her front teeth (she has 10 now, at 13.5 months) were quite decayed at the back. 

The dentist’s preferred course of action is to put her under a general anaesthetic (estimated cost of around $750), drill out the decayed areas of her teeth, and either fill (cost of around $900) or crown (cost of around $1,500) the teeth.
Can I afford that? Sure I can. I’m not ‘loaded’ by any means, but it’s not going to bankrupt me.
Can I justify the cost on teeth that will come out within 6 years? No. Not really. 

My friend and go-to for child-related questions said that she’d had a similar problem with her firstborn. A holistic doctor in Miami FL, where she was living at the time, told her to just let the teeth do what they do. If they rot, they rot.
Temporary milk teeth are just not worth the cost or risk. 

I cannot help but take responsibility for the damage.
When her teeth first came through, she showed great interested in eating what we were eating.
I tried to do her a favour by chewing food before giving it to her (on the basis that saliva aids digestion) … when I failed to register that saliva ALSO carries tooth-decaying bacteria….
Of course, my adult mouth has far more bacterian than hers … so I gave her a good ol’ mouthload of the bad stuff 🙁 

Add to that one point last summer where she wouldn’t drink milk or water out of a bottle or cup … she was only interested in orange juice.
So Frank gave that to her rather than face her becoming severly dehydrated and ending up in the hospital on an IV. 

I’m not going to beat myself up about it … what’s done it done … but I take full responsibility.
I’m not going to shrug that one off. 

I put the following post on a homeopathy forum and will follow the recommendations given for Cod Liver Oil and Mezereum 6c:
http://www.abchomeopathy.com/forum2.php/270485
I also consulted a leaflet called “The Biochemic Way to Health and Fitness” and this is my ‘working out’: 

Tissue Salts 1 & 2 (Calcium Fluoride, and Calcium Phosphate) both mention teeth.
Based on the leaflet, it appears that the combination treatments would be ‘G’ ‘P’ or ‘R’…
G: Calc. Fluor., Calc. Phos., Kali. Phos., Nat. Mur.
P: Calc. Fluor., Calc. Phos., Kali. Phos., Mag. Phos.
R: Calc. Fluor., Calc. Phos., Ferr. Phos., Mag. Phos., Silica. 

Kali. Phos: appears to be for nerves – and she doesn’t appear to suffer from nervous issues – of course, there is a chance that the tooth decay could be approaching a nerve … and repercussion of that would be nerve-related toothache. 

Mag. Phos: this mentions nerve ‘pains’ – which might be more appropriate than Kali Phos. 

Nat. Mur: Deals with water. She doesn’t have weepy eyes, or ‘watery colds’. I fear that she is often dehydrated (her soft spot sinks regularly … but I read that it’s not always a reliable indicator of dehydration). I fear that she doesn’t drink as much as maybe she should. Were I home all day, she would feed from me more often – and I definitely notice less of a sunk soft-spot at the weekends when I’m home all day. 

Ferr. Phos: Deals with typical symptoms of inflammation (coughs, cold, chills, fevers etc etc). If tooth decay were to lead to inflammation (trapped food perhaps at the gum-line) then this would definitely be advisable.
Based on the above, I would say that option ‘R’ was the most suitable.
It actually has a sub-heading in the leaflet “Infants teething pains”, though I tried to not let this sway my judgment. 

I have sent an email back to my father (through whom I received this leaflet, the original of which belongs to a 90-odd yr old homeopath family friend), to try to get some kind of recommended doseage for Eliza.
I am thinking that we can stem the decay now that we are aware of it, and avoid her teeth rotting away.
I couldn’t bear for her to have a cringe-worthy smile when the rest of her is so beautiful.
Call me vain, if you like. 

  

Links that I have looked at in association with this dental issue: 

http://www.healingteethnaturally.com/toothpaste-alternatives.html 

http://www.wellness-shop.us/children_toothpaste.html 

http://www.healingteethnaturally.com/herbal-treatment-introduction-general-advice-considerations.html 

http://www.paradisenow.net/healing.html 

http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com/truth_about_tooth_decay.htm 

http://www.curetoothdecay.com/Tooth_Decay/cod-liver-oil-vitamin-a.htm 

http://www.curetoothdecay.com/Tooth_Decay/tooth_cavity_vegan.htm 

http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1005583 

http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/phytic-acid.html 

http://herballegacy.com/Herbal_Tooth.html 

http://www.holisticwebs.com/cancer/silica.pdf 

http://www.healthsupplementsnutritionalguide.com/recommended-daily-allowances.html#INFANTS 

http://www.acu-cell.com/gesi.html (excessive magnesium intake will increasingly inhibit silicon absorption, no matter how much silicon is supplemented, and at which point silicon will no longer be able to lower magnesium. Only by raising sodium or phosphorus levels (and decreasing magnesium and/or calcium intake) is it possible to raise germanium or silicon levels again, following the inhibiting action of phosphorus on calcium, and/or sodium on magnesium) 

http://absenthealing.com/index.html (I read about this site through Vinny Pinto’s website – he claimed personal success with this ‘absent’ healer, so I might give it a go.) 

http://www.realrawfood.com/article/you-can-heal-your-childs-teeth 

http://www.dentalgentlecare.com/tooth_decay.htm 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11806479 (Hydrogen peroxide decomposition in the oral cavity).

http://www.herballegacy.com/Griffiths_Chemical.html