Really late comer. I recently found a toothpaste without fluoride - Spry. In my opinion fluorinating the public drinking water in unconscienceable. When I mentioned not using fluoride to my dentist, he was dead set against it. Course, he has put mercury in my and hundreds of other mouths plus been in favor of fluoride. So it would be quite a thing for him to change thinking on these things at this time in his career. Also he didn't know about the positive things for tooth and other health of xylitol. That really makes me wonder.

My friends' in town all go to the same orthodontist. And, I am telling you every one of their kids had braces starting in 2nd grade. Friends told me in doing it that early, they probably wouldn't have to have braces later on. But, now a couple-three years later, they are back into braces. I don't know enough about it to really decide. I did do some research on the internet, and came across a report from some dentists (have no idea where I found it, it's been about a year ago), stating that 95 percent of kids getting braces that early really do not need them, and it's best to wait until all their baby teeth are gone. They claimed it was sort of a scam by orthodontia now. I have two friend's in my circle who are dentists and of course their kids started early in braces. They, of course, are very good friends with a couple of orthodontists in town who puts braces on all my friends kids. My son's dentist (I don't go to my friend's husband who is a dentist) is very conservative and sending me to an orthodontist who doesn't live in my town to evaluate my son. For us, it's not really the money issue, in getting my son braces too early, it's the fact he would have to go through wearing braces twice that bother me. Like I said, I really don't know everything about it, I just personally feel that it's what everyone does now, in certain circles (yes, my circle of friends) and I need to find out more about it in order for me to become more comfortable with our decision. This post was edited by olliesmom on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 13:11

I had braces two+ decades ago now, and still wear my retainer. It's only an upper one because they did a permanent on my lowers which is cemented to the back side of the front 4 (maybe 6? it stops after the lower incisors/canines)...As a result, my teeth are still perfectly straight after all this time. No cavities until I got my first, was 27 at the time. Only two additional ones and a chipped edge on the lower molar furthest back which the dentist did a crown on so that I wouldn't end up needing a root canal down the road. I got sick with various respiratory illnesses on what generally was an annual basis when I was a child, so the doctor would prescribe a round of antibiotics each time. This took care of the illness but also made my permanent teeth yellowed. Can't have everything work out perfectly. ;) The bleaching gel you use custom trays for, and only available through the dentist, those helped but using them too frequently causes me tooth sensitivity so that's something I do sparingly and just for maintenance. I may have spent my entire life before 2017 in SoCal, but I don't need blindingly white Hollywood teeth. No yellow corn kernels either. ;)

My son did that. Once we took him off milk because he seemed allergic to it, and a couple of months passed with no milk or by products in his diet, he quit grinding his teeth too. Milk caused all kinds of problems for him, but it was constant coughing and sniffling that lead us to change his diet.