Childhood tooth decay

[RunningThroughMyHead]

In 2019, the NDEP found slightly under 1 in 4 five year olds had tooth decay (each child having 3-4 teeth affected).

I'm seeing more and more damaged and decayed teeth in young children, at school, with friends children and in my extended family. The odds dictate there must be many of us on here with young children with tooth decay. Of course, there will be some children who for various reasons, have decay NOT down to oral hygiene or diet. It could be genetic, injury or illness. But it's undeniable that there's some endemic poor oral hygiene going on too.

Why is this? I'm genuinely interested but obviously can't ask anyone IRL.

Why are otherwise very loving parents neglecting their children's health?

They fight brushing them when they're little and the baby teeth are weaker than adult ones. Apart from that malnutrition. I had bad teeth as a kid, it was partly poor diet but aswell my parents never told me to brush them, but I think that's unusual

Surely it’s obvious? An increase of sugar in the diet, more marketing on baby, toddler, kid snacks which are pushed as healthy and more snacking overall.
A good brush twice a day can’t make up for teeth being attacked by sugar and acid all day long.
Kids diets are very different to back in say the 90s when I was growing up for sure.

Diet, especially sugary drinks, lack of tooth brushing, no regular access to NHS dentistry for check ups/accountability, premature babies can have tooth issues but I doubt that’s a major factor given the scale of the problem. Be interesting to see if the government do their school tooth brushing thing and if it makes a difference.

Yes I can agree sadly.
I have worked in dentistry, and seen quite a few cases.
It is sad to see kids with rotten teeth, holes or worse to have fillings or have them removed.
Yes there teeth are weaker, but with good care and diet it is possible to maintain things.
It can range from parents/carers not brushing their children's teeth properly or even at all.
Drinks/candy/too many sweet foods.

I have seen toddlers with tooth decay at the front teeth because they lay in cot/bed with a bottle of milk or other at night.
So that area has been exposed more to plaque and decayed.

I've read a lot of threads on here from parents who struggle with it, but won't force the issue as they believe it's cruel to hold their child in place to brush their teeth properly.

Poor diet is probably an issue as well but children need to have their teeth brushed - properly - it's not optional.

That is sad. I was the same. Despite what was said since then. At some point as is expected of course, I was left to brush my own teeth, but didn't obviously get taught or learn well. And my teeth were quite bad. Then my father was upset when I had to go to the dentist and told teeth were bad lol.
There is so much parent neglect in the past and the present day.

I agree, I do think many people are quite passive about parts of parenting that are hard. I know parents of toddlers who don’t try very hard with their child’s teeth because the toddler resists … but when does it become easy or second nature if you don’t ever do it properly? They don’t wake up at 5 being perfect at brushing their teeth.
Even on here I’ve seen people offer the advice that it’s not worth the hassle if they are fighting it.
The same happens with bottles at bedtime, potty training etc.

I'm still not really over it. I've had to have work done constantly as an adult and a lot of my teeth have needed pulled in the end because you can only replace a filling so many times. I remember having big fillings in my front teeth, them looking broken down and decayed at the edges, when I was 11 and being embarrassed. I don't know what they were thinking. I've asked them about it but they just said they thought I should have just known to do it without being taught

It really annoys me how many people don't realise that, as you touched upon OP, that some children have dental conditions they're born with which cause such massive decay WITHOUT poor oral hygiene. My DD has MIH and recently had to have teeth removed under GA and every other child in the outpatient ward that day (all having multiple teeth removed under GA) every child there had MIH and therefore wasn't due to poor oral hygiene! Yet what pisses me off, is that the these children with MIH still contribute to the 'numbers of children having extractions' and the Daily Mail etc have a bloody field day with it

I remember watching a documentary a few years ago about children with bad teeth, and there were kids as young as 6/7 having to have multiple extractions in hospital due to decay. It genuinely shocked me but apparently it's quite common.

When I was that age I don't recall ever having a choice. My parents would brush them for me and then I used those red disclosing tablets once a week to make sure they were clean.

I'm in my late thirties now and have never had a cavity or a single issue with my teeth. I know that's partially luck and genetics (mum has great teeth too) but good oral hygiene from toddler-hood and regular dentists appointments helped massively IMO.

Sugary crap, fizzy drinks, juice and squash and permissive parenting who don’t make tooth brushing and water/milk only non negotiable.

MIH being "molar-incisor hypomineralisation" - where your teeth have soft, crumbly enamel. They wear and decay more easily. I've got it. Around 1 in 8 children in the UK have MIH, which is around 1 million children.

So much snacking these days. Teeth can only withstand acid attacks from food a certain number of times a day, and need a break in between those times, so snacking, even if its healthy snacks, is going to damage teeth.

@ricecrispiecakes Please see my post just above yours. I bet a large majority of the kids needing extractions on that documentary, had MIH but the producers likely decided not to include that minor detail 😡

My DD's dentist was very insistent that even if my daughter was peg fed, that her teeth would still crumble. Yet had a journalist been in that ward that day, DD would've been considered 'yet another' child needing extractions due to decaying teeth 🙄🙄🙄

@EnglishBluebell they did actually mention that condition and only one of the children featured had been diagnosed with it - the others just never had their teeth brushed and ate an awful, sugary diet. The parents even admitted they didn't brush their teeth because the kids got too upset.

Of course MIH is an awful condition but it's not the only reason kids have bad teeth.

@givemushypeasachance Thank you! Yes that's it. I'm so sorry you have it too. How have you found it in adulthood? Still as bad?
It breaks my heart as my DD refuses to drink anything besides water and hates sweets! So if she didn't have MIH then she'd probably have really nice teeth!

Ah ok fair enough. I must admit it surprises me that the MIH was acknowledged for that one child!

My DD has hypoplasia on some of her molars, so they look permanently awful and like she has poor teeth. Her teeth are actually great, she has a good diet and sees the dentist regularly but I have got a bit pissed off with nursery saying her teeth aren’t clean. They are clean but they developed like it.

I haven’t seen any sign of tooth decay amongst her peers.

I think genetics play a part in it to as we haven’t all got the same strength teeth. A friend and I were chatting the other week about this and she’s never had a filling but lives on a diet of sweets and chocolate. She must have really strong teeth because the next person wouldn’t be that lucky. She says herself that her diet is shocking and she can’t understand it either…

The shape of your teeth is also an element, in that some people have deeper natural groves where the acid erodes faster, where as are more smooth.

Diet obviously plays a part too but I’ve seen kids with rotten teeth that a stick thin so their diet can’t be that bad as they’d be over weight….

There is a number of reasons as mentioned above as it’s not simply always due to poor hygiene!

My DD has hypoplasia on some of her molars, so they look permanently awful and like she has poor teeth. Her teeth are actually great, she has a good diet and sees the dentist regularly but I have got a bit pissed off with nursery saying her teeth aren’t clean. They are clean but they developed like it.

I haven’t seen any sign of tooth decay amongst her peers.

I’d be interested to know what’s happening to those children once they reach adulthood.

one of my dc had cavities on two teeth, only picked up when they got infected and had to be pulled out (despite the 6 months visit - you could still get them then).

He is a young adult now and has no issue at all with his teeth since then.
We didn’t change anything either, diet or brushing wise. The only thing we changed was to switch to adult toothpaste, on the recommendation of the dentist. But we would have done that about in 1~2 years anyway

I have seen thousands of children over the years who have had to have teeth out and fillings over the years.

A very small minority have developmental problems with the teeth.

A very small minority have special needs that makes it very difficult to keep good oral health, although it has to be said many parents/careers of children with special needs seem to make massive efforts to keep good oral health in very challenging circumstances .

For the vast,vast,vast majority it is the frequency of eating/drinking during the day that is the problem. The average U.K. child eats more than 7 times a day . They eat two to three times the recommended daily amount of sugar.

The heart breaking thing is , in most cases, the child that has teeth removed at 2 years old will be the child that continues to have dental treatment all during their life and who is very likely to become dental phobic. Very few carers/parents make the changes necessary after seeing their child need treatment. It is seen as a normal thing outside of their control.

I have had people bring their children into the practice drinking fruit shoots in the surgery and having sweets as a reward for being good when they’ve just had a filling.

Many parents/carers are resistant to the idea of changing their child’s diet and restricting access to snacks during the day , or just not buying them in the first place , except at eg weekends.

Many parents are frightened of restricting drinks outside of meal times to just water or milk . Their children “refuse” water. Of course they do as humans we are programmed to crave sweet things so if a sweet drink is on offer they will not go for water.

It’s not just sweets,cakes,biscuits it’s smoothies, fruit juice, raisins, granola bars, yoghurts and the endless grazing that is the problem.

It’s heartbreaking that we are still seeing 18 month olds having all their teeth removed and tooth decay is the number one reason for young children to go into hospital.

From NHS Wales

Tooth decay is one of the most common reasons for childhood hospitalisation; it has a lifelong impact as poor childhood dental health is a predictor of poor adult dental health.In the vast majority of cases, tooth decay is entirely preventable through positive health behaviours (Designed to Smile).

Constant exposure to sugary shite all through the day…..fine to eat loads of sweets but just do once a day

My parents made us brush our teeth and we didn't have many sweets but I still had several fillings as a child (all without local anaesthetic).

In contrast, my children are now in their mid-twenties and neither of them have ever had a filling.

As a result, I had assumed, until recently, that children's teeth were in a much better state than those of my generation (I'm in my early 60s).

It's very depressing that things are getting worse rather than better.