what about their teeth?

[RomeoEcho]

Originally Posted by swellman

I have a fairly firm grasp as to why glucose spills into urine but I have absolutely no idea why it would spill into saliva. Would you mind posting a link that might explain that? Not doubting ... just lazy.

Sorry, I have no idea either. This wasn't something I did paper research on, we were kids at camp with a bottle of glucose strips.

[emm142]

Originally Posted by RomeoEcho

I would suspect that this is due more to individual differences between the kids or with the higher sugar level in their saliva over time than from treating nighttime lows. I had more cavities before I was diagnosed than after.

When we are high, we do have higher sugar in saliva though which is a great breading ground for cavities, and even more so for gum disease. The more time spent in the "normal" range, the less this will happen though. Years ago, at camp, we were curious and starting playing around with urine glucose strips. Saliva showed just as much of an increase in glucose than urine, though appeared to have less of a time delay and we were really confused why people didn't use saliva since it was more convenient than urine.

They have tried to develop devices which do this, but I have no idea how they get around the problem that saliva retains glucose from food eaten recently.

[steph]

we use honey in a medicine syringe and shoot it past her teeth. much cheaper than glucose gel. then a syringe of water to rinse. My DD is little, so 5CHO does the trick, but you could use it 2 or 3 times.

[Charliesmom]

We use juice boxes with straws. Close to 5 1/2 years with diabetes and no cavities.

[Annapolis Mom]

No helpful suggestions, but I will mention that our daughter's dentist also has a young daughter with type 1, and they don't worry about sugar from middle of the night lows. Not that it isn't a problem, but they don't push the brushing or the swishing and they don't swish or brush either.