Update #17 Big dental issues in my DD1 and I'm freaking.

[calebsmama03]

Do you have any dentist you feel you can truly trust, not necessarily to do the heavy work, but to look and say yes this needs to be done? When I was in my very early 20s i started having a sensitive spot. I'd never had a cavity in my life (I'd had one shallow filling in a wisdom tooth because of a pit issue and skin flap that made it at high risk for decay so opted for that rather than extracting the tooth but no true cavities). I had moved several states away from the dentist I'd seen most of my life so I went to the chain type dental place my job insurance covered and this dentist tells me I had 15 total cavities that I needed to fill ASAP! I was freaking out and in tears. He says we will just do one side, the less involved side, and that I'll come back for the other. He does 5 (mercury) fillings and places a few sealants on the "few non involved teeth" and send me home. My mom called that night and I told her the story and she immediately told me not to go back and suggested I see my old dentist when I came back for a wedding 6 weeks from then. I did and not only were there NOT 10 cavities on the unfilled side, but he found zero evidence on my X-rays of any decay on the filled teeth. I am still furious 15 years later! He said it seemed this dentist was filling any deeper crevice that had any amount of staining in it and that it is a "very aggressive approach" and that he hesitates to call any licensed professional a "quack" but in this case.... After that I saw my old dentist for 7 years until he retired. I literally traveled 1000 miles for dental check ups and never had another issue till 2 years ago after ds3, when I got a cavity in a wisdom tooth. I just made sure to get back "home" at least once ever 8-9 months.

I think dentists are like car repair guys. You don't really KNoW if they're telling the truth or exaggerating to mKe money and it's easy for them to scare us into just paying up. It's possible they are trying to catch every possible issue because you're doing anesthesia and they want to be thorough while they're in there but I'd really have serious doubts about that diagnosis. Your poor DD.

Have you tried any of the remineralizing tooth pastes? There's a great product called Novamin that rebuild enamel. My teeth were a mess of sensitivity and receding gums after my last pregnancy and 8 months later my hygienist had to triple check the chart they had improved so much. Sadly, GSK bought out the mfr and refuses to allow any US consumer products to continue using it but there's a sensodyne product in the UK with it and you can still get prescription toothpaste with it (clinpro 5000, which I use but don't prefer because it has crap ton of fluoride and it seems to irritate my gums if I use it every day). I also used Dr. Ellie's system for a while but honestly gave up too soon (and switched to the now discontinued Novamin fluoride free paste) because it is so involved and I had a non sleeping 4 month old so couldn't spend that much thought and time on my teeth. She has a lot of interesting things to say about xylitol though and I still do use the xylitol gum frequently. I was researching tooth healing and remineralization/strengthening and was going to implement so rinses and dietary stuff I found online but the Novamin pastes worked so well that I never did.

Good luck to you and DD. I hope you find a dentist you feel you can trust and get a final word on whether it is necessary or not.