Teeth, sleep, bottles and pacifiers

Mr Meh has four teeth now -- the lower and upper two. He's bitten all of us over the last few days. The two lower ones are nice and straight and next to each other, while there is a big gap between the upper two. He looks like a water horse (is that what those animals are called?) . I guess soon it will be time to take him to the dentist.

As the pediatrician said, I've been trying to "brush" those toothuus -- basically stick a wet wash cloth in his mouth and rub the teeth. Sometimes he lets me and sometimes he doesn't. (It looks like I'm the tooth brusher in the house, as I'm the only one who brushes Mariposa's teeth as well.)

But yesterday a friend scared me that I'm going to make his teeth rot by letting him fall asleep with a bottle of formula. Now I'm all freaking out -- what if it's true. But on the other hand, since I've introduced the bottle to take to bed (before I just used to nurse him, put him to sleep and he'd fall asleep but then wake up later in the night, hungry) he's been sleeping through the night. During this last feeding (after I nurse him, but I doubt he gets a lot of milk from me anymore), he's been sleeping through the night. Even if he wakes up during the night (let's say at 2 am), I let him cry it out ('sleep train him") and he falls back a sleep in a few minutes.

So is this turning into a dilemma --- risk rotten teeth, or risk no sleep?

Not to mention the fact that I'm apparently supposed to make him give up the bottle and start drinking from a sippy cup as soon as possible (ie when he turns one, which is in three weeks.)

But on a positive note, we're barely using the pacifier anymore. Actually, I have no clue where they are --- he hasnt' wanted one in a while. Actuallly, when I try to give him a pacifier to calm him down while driving, he doesn't want it.