Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
OK, I confess I was only reasoning from my own experience (My first five years were spent in an area with naturally soft water. My milk teeth were terrible. Then we moved to an area with naturally hard water. My adult teeth are OK -- One crown, filled molars, none lost.)
[EDIT: And a brief bit of research (which I should have done before posting!) shows that there is some heritability in tooth decay - the surface structure of the teeth does affect how susceptible they are to decay, and that structure is heritable. Apologies!]
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Yep. I have enamel dysplasia and passed it along to my kids. (We often laugh about how unfair genetics has been to them!)
On the other hand, they had the benefit of flouride treatment, enamel sealants, etc., and their teeth have fared much (much!) better than mine! Seriously, dental hygienists lectured me on the proper way to brush my teeth at each and every appointment (which were frequent, given the number of cavities I had) even though I insisted that
I was brushing them!
When my son was three and problems started showing up the dentist said, "Oh, yeah. Enamel dysplasia. We can handle that."
Gotta love progress!