I sometimes I wonder how many babies are weaned after a trip to the dentist.
I love my dentist, but I have heard so many stories of dentists telling mothers to wean because breastmilk is causing their children dental caries. One of my friends, who was nursing her twins, was told by her dentist that nursing was the cause of one of her twins' dental problem. She pointed out that they both nurse, in pretty much exactly the same pattern, but only one had the problem and one didn't. It was like she had a control group! He couldn't explain why they didn't both have the problem, but stuck by the theory that nursing was the culprit.
So I was really happy to see a study in Pediatrics which came out this week. It concluded: "These data provide no evidence to suggest that breastfeeding or its duration are independent risk factors for early childhood caries, severe early childhood caries, or decayed and filled surfaces on primary teeth." For a list of similar studies see this page on kellymom.com.
A while back I was reading the blog New Mama's Nest and saw this post, which illustrates the problem of bad information on this topic perfectly. It also shows why it's important to get second opinions. "Little X" is Xavier, who was born prematurely (28 weeks), and in this post he's old enough to have eight teeth.
Little X has also endured his first trip to the dentist. Two different dentists in two days, to be exact. His top four teeth were showing signs of decay (despite brushing twice a day before he even had teeth!) and it was just getting worse. Xav was quite the trooper. I thought the first visit had gone ok, until we got home and I replayed all the doc had said. He was a bit demeaning, told me I needed to wean X and would give me no real reason why he is having such a problem with his top four teeth while the bottom four are beautiful. He wanted me to bring X back so they could strap him to a table, drill and bond his teeth, while he was awake. Oh yeah, and I couldn't be present. No thank you!
So take two. This dentist was lovely! She explained that often preemies' tooth enamel doesn't completely form leaving them vulnerable, and in X's case he was on tons of antibiotics as a little guy which weakens them further, and then iron supplements which stain and weaken even more. She did a quick cleaning in office and offered a much brighter outlook (and was supportive of extended nursing). We're brushing after every thing he eats and going back in a couple of months but she thinks if we stay on top of things, and do a little work down the road (with proper anesthesia and mama present!) his teeth will be just fine. Big sigh!
Actually, breastfeeding is really good for babies' dental development, especially the alignment of teeth. If you're interested in the topic of breastfeeding and dental development, be sure to check out Dr. Brian Palmer's website. And here's a page on kellymom.com about breastfeeding and tooth decay which lays it all out nicely.
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