Mysterious illness When children’s teeth suddenly crumble
Clearly visible here: whitish-yellow spots on the upper incisors. You are affected by an MIH.
(Photo: Maurizio Procaccini et al / Wikipedia / CC BY 2.0)
Caries is hardly widespread among children, but another dental disease puzzles: With MIH, teeth can simply break away. The disorder is created as early as baby – or even earlier. What’s behind it? An interview.
Almost a third of all twelve-year-olds in Germany are affected: Their teeth are free of caries and yet at least one tooth has white or yellowish-brown spots, is sometimes very sensitive to touch and crumbles away when the worst comes to the worst. The disease is called molar incisive hypomineralization, MIH for short. That sounds bulky, but describes well what it is about: the entire child’s dentition is never affected by the disease, but rather the first permanent molars that the dentist calls six-year molars, and the upper front teeth, the incisors. The reason for the complaint is that the enamel of these teeth lacks minerals – hence hypomineralization.