Expert: Jeff Dalin DDS - 11/18/2004

Question
My daughter is 33 months old. I am concerned that we may have been causing her to have fluorosis in the future. For over one year, we have used toothpaste with fluoride. She swallowed the paste every time, and we brushed twice a day. We did use a pea size amount, but nevertheless, she swallowed. Also, our drinking water has fluoride in it and she drinks a ton of water everyday. I did not know about fluorosis until recently, and now I am upset. Honestly, how much damage do you think we could have done so far? Is she doomed to have horrible white spots or worse on her permanent teeth based on what we have done?

Answer
Jade,
There is no way to predict if this will cause any problems in your daughter. You will have to wait  until she is around 6 or 7 and her permanent teeth start coming in. Usually this is not a problem but everyone is different. The drinking water should not cause any problem. If you only used a tiny amount of toothpaste then this should not cause any problems either. We see more white spots on teeth due to high fevers. So relax. You did not do anything wrong here. Just switch to a children's toothpaste with little or no fluoride until she can spit out. Then go back to regular paste. Good Luck...feel free to recontact me if you have any other questions.

Jeff Dalin, DDS