They Say: Don’t Bother Filling Baby Teeth

This just in from a group of British researchers: decaying baby teeth may not be worth filling. Finally, a group of experts who supports the “Why bother, they’re just going to fall out anyway” defense.

But seriously, folks … as reported in this BBC News piece, researchers at Manchester University recently collected data from 50 dentists and found that they take vastly different approaches to handling cavity-ridden baby teeth. Some fill them, some extract them and some do nothing at all. Regardless of the course of action, the presence of decaying baby teeth did not necessarily appear to lead to problematic adult teeth. For obvious reasons, then, most parents may prefer to avoid filling or pulling their children’s baby teeth unless the kids are experiencing extreme pain and discomfort because of them.

Which relates back to the “Why bother, they’re just going to fall out anyway” approach, one that not only makes sense from a practical perspective, but from an economical one, too. Why pay for all those procedures when the Tooth Fairy’s just going to collect those suckers in a few days/weeks/months/years? But hold the phone for  a second…

Continue reading »