my son apparantly has "baby bottle syndrome", his 4 front upper teeth have quite a bit of decay yes, but it has not reached the pulp or nerve yet, and the pediactric dentist said to remove them and that is my only option. I cant believe that is it,
why cant they do a root canal if needed? i have to save his teeth at any cost and i am sure it will affect his speech development if they are removed.
if God forbid they say he has to have them removed, what happens if i leave it and just take the best care from now on, would this decay travel to his adult teeth.
has anyone been thru this or have any advice for me?

Please Help

My son lost his front teeth in a sledding accident. Though he promised not to, his grandfather put him on the sled alone, at the top of a hill. He smashed face first into a metal slippery slide, and shattered his front teeth into 4 or more pieces. They had to be taken out. It had no affect. His speech was fine. The second teeth came in very close to normal. The tooth seeds had been slightly damaged. A little bonding, and he was fine.
If you don't like what you are hearing, try another pediatric dentist, for a second opinion. I would guess that a root canal would be a lot of expense, for very little payback. Good luck with your little man.

Thanks for you comforting words, i already have an apponitment for a 2nd opinion next week.
but do you know if it is even possible to do a root canal on a 21 month old boy?

A rct on a child is called a pulpotomy and where they are not as involved as rct like for a permant tooth. Anyways this would probably still be a hard prodcure on a child so young. My DD is the same age and there is no way she would be able to do this. In the area i live in though we have a hospital where they can put the child to sleep and then do the work. Baby teeth are important the hold the spot for the adult teeth. On older children if you have to take teeth out early they have appliance they can wear to hold the space. This involves having impressions done which you couldn't get on a 21 month old. They don't make trays small enough for that. It sounds like they need they at least need fillings in those teeth. Which could be hard for a 21 month old to sit still for. The new filling material the area has to be dry. You could check to see if you have a hospital that put them to sleep and will do this procedure. Even if the teeth are pulled you want him to be relaxed. That would be very tramtic for a little one like this. You don't want to leave his teeth in untreated. What happens is once the decay has reached the nerve they will become very painful for him. Plus the decay just doesn't stop once the baby tooth is fully decayed it will continue into the permant teeth and then you have a whole other issue. So since there is active decay going on then something need to be done about these teeth. Get the second opinion and see if you can save these teeth. It's just any dental work on a child this young would probably require them to go to sleep. I have never heard on doing pulpotomy's on a child this young, but its worth checking into.

A friend of mine had the same problem. Her son is 3 and he got silver caps put on his teeth. maybe you should ask about caps.
Shawna

My DD had caps placed on her molars when she was 3 yrs. old at a hospital and was put under. She was born with poor enamel. They have also had to resurface one of her teeth. That was a painless and quick procedure. Maybe that could be an option for you. I think you should look into other options before you let them pull the teeth.
good luck!!