You're right, baby teeth (also known as deciduous teeth) are really just temporary and most dentists would much rather not touch a fuzzy kid. However, we do have to think about the well being of the permanent (aka adult) teeth that is sitting right underneath that baby tooth waiting to come out.
Structure of baby teeth are much like adult teeth, except they are more fragile. If you look at the diagram from the last entry, the enamal and dentin are much thinner, they are also softer than adult teeth due to degree of mineralization. They have a much larger pulp in comparison. Given all the above, cavities progress much faster in baby teeth compare with adult teeth.
Once cavities (which is really a bacterial infection) reaches the pulp, it can have access to blood stream, or the infection can be localized forming an abcess at the base of the baby tooth which is right against where the adult tooth is. In cases like this you risk having discolouration, malformation etc on the adult teeth. It is hard to predict excatly how the infection will affect the adult tooth until eruption. So we would always fix baby teeth if cavity is shallow or in some cases extract them to prevent this from happening. Another remedy for baby teeth with deep cavity are partial/complete root canals. It's not always done depending on the situation and also practice philosophy of your dentist. The main goal of this is to keep the baby teeth for as long as possible, so the space for the adult tooth is kept until eruption. It can also provide function (so your child can eat) and esthetic (if it's in the front). Ultimately all treatment goal is to aim to remove the infection which is the most important in any kind of therapy dentists provide.
Aside from this, you probably really do not want your child to be in pain or end up with a systemic infection from a tooth (very rare but possible).
Structure of baby teeth are much like adult teeth, except they are more fragile. If you look at the diagram from the last entry, the enamal and dentin are much thinner, they are also softer than adult teeth due to degree of mineralization. They have a much larger pulp in comparison. Given all the above, cavities progress much faster in baby teeth compare with adult teeth.
Once cavities (which is really a bacterial infection) reaches the pulp, it can have access to blood stream, or the infection can be localized forming an abcess at the base of the baby tooth which is right against where the adult tooth is. In cases like this you risk having discolouration, malformation etc on the adult teeth. It is hard to predict excatly how the infection will affect the adult tooth until eruption. So we would always fix baby teeth if cavity is shallow or in some cases extract them to prevent this from happening. Another remedy for baby teeth with deep cavity are partial/complete root canals. It's not always done depending on the situation and also practice philosophy of your dentist. The main goal of this is to keep the baby teeth for as long as possible, so the space for the adult tooth is kept until eruption. It can also provide function (so your child can eat) and esthetic (if it's in the front). Ultimately all treatment goal is to aim to remove the infection which is the most important in any kind of therapy dentists provide.
Aside from this, you probably really do not want your child to be in pain or end up with a systemic infection from a tooth (very rare but possible).
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