Will Decayed Baby Teeth Fall Out on Their Own?

Ithink the point that everyone is missing here is that decayed baby teeth can damage permanent teeth.
Good luck!

I had my kiddo's teeth crowned - the 4 front - when he was 3. He had general anesthesia. I waited a long time, brushing and all that, but he eventually quit eating due to pain, so it had to be done. I, too, kick myself constantly for not doing better for him - but you can only do what you can do. So fix her teeth and move on. 😃

They won't fall out on their own until they are closer to 5 or 6, sometimes 7.
Long before that time, the tooth will continue to rot and decay and become infected. That tooth will cause permanent damage to the adult teeth that are forming under the gums, above those teeth. The pain will become unbearable. The infection can spread into the brain and the blood stream. Worse case scenario can in fact happen here when dealing with tooth decay.
Yes, get the cavities taken care of!! I've been through caring for a child who's tooth got infected. Thanks to misdiagnosis, hassles with insurance, a formal complaint against the first pediatric dentist we were sent to and a bunch of other issues a tooth became infected while actively seeking treatment for the cavity. My son was only around the age of 3.5 at the time.
It's a good thing that the dentist you are seeing wants to do crowns and not just pull them which is a far worse course of treatment and also the wrong one. If you feel like you should, get a second opinion. Our dentist was able to do the work without using general anesthesia and just used nitrous and a local. They put him in a special swaddling blanket papoose to keep him restrained so both he and the dentist stayed safe. Our office specializes in special needs children as well so I felt very comfortable with them.

Edit: I have no idea what Gamma G is talking about in relation to nitrous. The kids aren't "loopy" or anything else. Nitrous is a gas. It clears the system as soon as they give them oxygen to clear it from their system. It doesn't stay in the system at all. At most my kids are tired. Most of the time that's more because our office insists on making all appointments first thing in the morning to get any work done. We're not morning people. They aren't loopy or hallucinating in the slightest. I do have to agree that this is far more genetics then anything you did or didn't do. Our dentist confirmed this to be true. Out of 3 children, 2 had very weak enamel while the third has only had a couple of cavities his entire life and he's 11. Same diet, same care etc. Don't beat yourself up over this. It happens.

I'm not sure why pulling the rotten teeth is something you are so hesitant to do. They're baby teeth. They aren't permanent. Here's something I'd recommend you think about. Go to the nearest CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL and get a 3rd opinion from one of their pediatric dentists. Ask them if you can get fake teeth instead of crowns to put where the missing teeth will go. My youngest son had an extranumery tooth up above his two baby teeth in the top. They had to pull those two baby teeth and wait for the extra tooth to come down. THEN they removed it (it looked like half a molar). THEN they put what looked like a retainer with fake teeth and gums in that place and hooked them onto other teeth, like you would a retainer for braces. We waited for the permanent teeth to come down and as soon as they broke through the skin, we removed the retainer and he had perfect permanent teeth. (And no one could tell that these weren't his teeth. They looked real.)

Here's something to read:
http://www.colgate.com/app/CP/US/EN/OC/Information/Articl...

Btw, my son's teeth were pulled with the use of laughing gas. He fell asleep while they were pulling them and didn't know it had happened until it was finished. At the very least, the laughing gas made it so they could give him the novicane shots to make it so pulling the teeth didn't hurt. No GA involved...

Please get a second opinion if this makes you feel better but I would not want "baby teeth" to just hang out for a couple of years. Unfixed, they can cause your child pain and can hurt the adult teeth below them. When my DD was 4, we went the hospital route and had 7 teeth taken care of (various concerns). It is nerve-wracking, but our choice was to let them rot, to try to do 4 visits in the dental chair (no way would she sit for it 4 times) or try the OR route. If you don't want it to be in any sort of dental office, go to a dentist that uses a hospital. I was reassured that DD would be in the hands of a pediatric anesthesiologist and a doctor on staff at the pediatric dental center we use.

My DD has a crown on a tooth that will probably not fall out til she is 8. In the meantime, the spacing in her mouth is preserved and she is not in any pain. The steel crowns are very commonly used for such teeth.

I also agree to ask the dentist how you can avoid this. Even my own personal dentist has a son with soft teeth, so sometimes it's just genetics. But this may mean prescription toothpaste, more brushing and flossing (we did not floss well between tight teeth, so she got cavities where they touched...now we floss religiously), more dental cleanings, etc. If he goes to bed with a drink, or snacks on chewy things...all that needs to be considered.

I, too, am not fond of general anesthesia at any age. However, with that said, front teeth do not fall out on their own until somewhere about 5 , 6, or 7 ...and frankly that's a mighty long time to allow the rot to fester and lead to an infection, which may affect her adult teeth but could also spread into her system and cause all sorts of other trouble.
My son had a couple of molars that were abcessed pulled when he was almost 7 by a pediatric dentist w/o general anseshesia...I don't quite remember how they numbed him up.....
I'd get a second opinion as to the anesthetic, but, I'd seriously would consider having them pulled to avoid the infection.
Good luck

Put your child to sleep and let the docs fix their teeth the best way. I'd say the crowns BUT BUT BUT that's the most expensive way. Otherwise you need to let them be pulled. Their adult teeth start coming in when they're 4-5-6.

IF these teeth are molars then have them capped and be done with it. If they're front teeth get them out and forget about it.

They won't even notice they're gone.

Kids enamel is from their parents genes and not much a person does can keep them from fulfilling their predetermined enamel strength. If his enamel is weak he's going to have cavities no matter what.

I chose to get the work done with our grand kids. We had a few caps and a few more fillings and a couple of teeth pulled due to the amount of decay.

It's a simple procedure. They put a mask over the kids nose then they go to sleep with anesthesia. The doc does the work all in one swoop and it is quicker and better for the kid. Then they stop the anesthesia and kiddo wakes up. They don't have lingering side effects like kids do from gas anesthesia and they are awake and ready to go eat and play as soon as they can get out of the building.

On the other hand if they use a gas to put them out like a lot of other docs do the med takes hours to get out of their system and it's like they're hallucinating the whole time.

I prefer a real anesthesiologist who will use real anesthesia instead of one that uses a gas type that's not as easy on the kids.

Do this work and prepare for it happening again with their adult teeth. What they eat or drink has very little to do with cavities and decay. It's genetic for the most part.

yes. the teeth will fall out but not for several years... you could ask the dentist about pulling the teeth.. it might be cheaper and easier than the crowns.. my friend adopted a child at 2 with terrible teeth.. he had several teeth pulled but his adult teeth came in at the right time in the right place.. and he looks fine now..

i dunno about crowns. i would only do that if i had several concurring opinions and immanent danger of shifting adult teeth.
i WOULD have the baby teeth pulled. you don't want the decay to spread to the growing adult teeth.
khairete
S.

Hi J.,

We never had crowns done, but some of our kids had to put under for ear and adenoid surgery, and were fine. If you can be there when they wake up, that's ideal - they seem a little disoriented or might be in some pain when they first wake. Ours did fine though.

My kids have had bad baby teeth pulled rather than having them filled - leaving a gap for several years until they grew in. These were molars and were done around age 7 years. The spacing and room for adult teeth was fine. We heard different opinions on that so we checked with several dentists, and decided to do what the most experienced one suggested (just to pull with freezing).

Good luck :)

My 7 year old had 2 crowns put on baby teeth in the fall. He had 4 appointments for the 4 quadrants of his mouth that all had cavities. He has soft teeth, but we don't want his adult teeth having issues or risking him having a root canal because we don't fix the bad teeth.

We went to an amazing pediatric dentist who use laughing gas for him. He was awake the whole time, each appointment took less than 20 minutes, and his teeth are doing much better now.

I asked why we needed to do it because his teeth are going to fall out soon, but he told me if we didn't fix the teeth, the gap from the tooth being pulled or falling out could close up and cause major crowding issues later on.

So I would do what is recommended (with a second opinion) and make sure the teeth are healthy. At 2.5 if they are that bad, you may want to find out what the problem is.

All baby teeth will fall out but not till age 5 at the earliest. Do the crowns.
We did them for my daugter when she was 18 months old. Try to avoid those metal crowns and get porcalin if you can. The look of anything but porcalin is really not pritty... Though I guess it would function. :)
The general anestesia was not covered by our dental insurance so that was about the most expensive part. It was freeky I have to say... to watch my daughter go under. But she had no distress and it was just fine really. Just be prepared that after the procedure there will be a few hrs of time where your kid cannot be left alone. I was told but didnt really appreiate that...
So the day of your child's procedure make sure there is no other demands on your time for immediately after. Like have alternate childcare arranged for any young siblings under 5 years old.
Hope it goes well. :)

I think that you have two choices - pull them and wait until they grow back or do a root canal and get crowns. It really depends a lot on your insurance and your desire to spend a lot of money on crowns (don't forget, dentists make money by selling you their services).

In either case, I'd get a second opinion from a ped dentist. I"d also look into why she has 4 rotted teeth at 2.5!

Good luck - poor little one.

My DD had bottle rot in her 4 front teeth. Even after she was off the bottle 13-14 months) she was still getting one at dad's house. And he was putting chocolate milk in it. I started noticing a little discoloring around 2 1/2 or 3 and found out about his bottles. Ugh! I was diligent about bruising them but they continued to decay. By 4 she was often getting asked what was wrong with her teeth by kids at the park. The dentist said that the bottle rot could effect her adult teeth and I promptly made an appointment for crowns.
For a kid that acted like the bad teeth didn't effect her she Loved the crowns! She smiled all the time (even more than before). She also became more excited about brushing.
I honestly wish I would have had the crowns done earlier!

Good luck! The procedure will be fine, really it will. As the others have said, you can't wait up to 5 years for those teeth to fall out, you just can't. One of my sons had 2 caps on his baby teeth (molars, so luckily we could go with ugly ones) and almost all of my kids have had fillings before Kindergarten. We just have lousy teeth that are prone to decay, it happens.

Anyway...get the work done and know that going forward, you are going to have to be extra-vigilant about oral hygiene for your child.

My 3 yr old is scheduled to have dental surgery in June. We are diligently brushing his teeth to hopefully stop further decay. It is possible the decay can cause an infection or potentially affect his adult teeth. His will be at the children's hospital rather than dental office since he has a bleeding disorder. I trust them completely. I know there are stories about illness and death but those are the ones we hear about. We never hear about successes. My son will have "crowns" put on his front teeth if they do not have to pull them out. I was told these are very similar to veneers that adults might get. It is scary to think about our children, especially the smallest, getting anything like this done.

BTW, when my oldest son was 1 (16 today), he had a port inserted for medication. The one hour turned into almost 3. He had no issue with the anethesia. But when he woke up, he was scared since he had no idea what was going on or where he was. It took a while for him to accept me. Totally normal.

My grandson had the dreaded toddler rot and had to have the top teeth pulled at about three. So he ran around and played and did everything else. When the adult came in they were and are beautiful.

Besides you don't want anything rotting off in your body causing other physical or systemic issues. He's only a little kid not a college graduate.

He'll be fine and so will you. Stop beating yourself up over it and just do it and get it done.

the other S.

Updated

My grandson had the dreaded toddler rot and had to have the top teeth pulled at about three. So he ran around and played and did everything else. When the adult came in they were and are beautiful.

Besides you don't want anything rotting off in your body causing other physical or systemic issues. He's only a little kid not a college graduate.

He'll be fine and so will you. Stop beating yourself up over it and just do it and get it done.

the other S.

I'm glad you've already made your decision, and yes, I agree it needs to be done.

Little ones get over stuff like this SO much faster than us adults.... we have a habit of kicking ourselves for mistakes and things we've done for a LONG time afterwards.....

Yes, it is scary to have a child undergo a procedure with anesthesia, but trust your dentist! They are the experts at this, and have dealt with the anesthesia many times......

My son needed a "baby pulpectomy" as our dentist called it..... he had a lot of problems with his baby teeth.... we got the root canal and crown done with just the nitrous oxide (one of his early molars)..... he did just fine..... he actually dozed off during the procedure! In his case, it was the dentist administering the nitrous oxide..... we've trusted our dentist for years, and he isn't a pediatric dentist, just a family dentist.

Good luck.... don't keep looking back on what you should have done, or didn't do..... just move forward with what you feel is best for your child.

My son needed a root canal and crown on a back tooth - and yes I felt responsible too. I was afterall. But the twilight sleep they give kids is very short action and wears off very swiftly. His adult teeth can be affected (and once the adult teeth come in those are the only teeth he'll ever get, all of his life) so, suck it up and get it done. There are extrememly rare horrible things that happens to people every day - but we can't be afaird of doing what needs to be done based on those instances. Heck we'd never drive a car if we were going to base it one things that "might" happen.

Updated

My son needed a root canal and crown on a back tooth - and yes I felt responsible too. I was afterall. But the twilight sleep they give kids is very short action and wears off very swiftly. His adult teeth can be affected (and once the adult teeth come in those are the only teeth he'll ever get, all of his life) so, suck it up and get it done. There are extrememly rare horrible things that happens to people every day - but we can't be afaird of doing what needs to be done based on those instances. Heck we'd never drive a car if we were going to base it one things that "might" happen.