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?

Nothing to do with the fact it’s easier to get inside broadmoor than access an NHS dentist?

Dentists aren't responsible for day-to-day dental hygiene though - that's down to the parents.

Dentist here!
For most children as @Lollygaggle said, it’s due to frequency of sugar. They have sugar for breakfast, snacks on the way to school, then a snack at 10.30 (with sugar in it), lunch which will have sugar in, treat at school pick up, snack when they get home, dinner ( usually has some form of sugar in!) then a few snacks in the evening or around clubs etc….Each tiny amount of sugar ( whether it’s a healthy form or not) does an hour of damage to the teeth. So if there are 7-8 attacks a day the teeth stand no chance, whether meticulous brushing is managed or not.

No it isn’t

It really is in some areas. Neither of my children are registered with an NHS dentist as you simply can’t get one.

But that has nothing do do with the frequency of sugar in children’s diets which is the cause of decay

It’s the ones that come in after school for a check up and they’ve been given some sort of a snack so I can’t see their teeth for all the gunge. The kid isn’t going to starve to death before I’ve managed to check the teeth! Wotsits are the worse

It’s a trend that has been going on for years.

A dentist spends a few minutes, at most , each year with a child . A parent/carer spends hundreds of thousands of minutes and is in charge of what that child eats, drinks , when they eat and drink and supervises their tooth brushing.

Unfortunately children’s dental appointments are the ones that are most likely not to be attended . In general the worse the child’s dental health the more likely the child is not going to be brought to an appointment booked for them with failure rates between 12% and 50% in some clinics.

Even at the best of times the NHS only ever provided dental treatment for 50% of the population.

I remember my mum taking my toothbrush to the dentist so I could brush before my appointment! Is that no longer a thing?

My (well educated) parents didn't make me brush my teeth and I had terrible decay as a child. It's just sheer luck that I didn't get any decay in my front adult teeth, so although the molars are crowned/big fillings/missing, they look ok from the front. I'm in my mid 40s so it's not today's diet. My parents were just lazy and certainly never took me to the dentist. I'm fastidious about my DC teeth.

@ricecrispiecakes not where I work it’s not!
They’re usually stuck together with toffee

Is it actually worse than it was 30-40 years ago or is the lack of NHS dentists mean that things aren’t picked up until they are causing a problem?

I remember in the early 90s someone coming into school and we all had to chew disclosing tablets to see how well we were brushing. My kids haven’t had anything like this at school.

Ugh, I don't envy you!

You can buy disclosing tablets in Boots.

Funding for school visits has definitely been cut.
Many families no longer cook from scratch, so basic foods now have sugar in. This is adding to the problem. Plus we are becoming a nation of snackers!

I’ve had families in and as one was sat in the chair the others were eating crisps and sweets and drinking fruit shoots.

At one memorable appointment after seeing three of the four children who all needed teeth out I saw the toddler in a push chair being fed polos . When I asked why the parent replied “it’s because she won’t eat mars bars”.

Ive seen many children who don’t own toothbrushes , it’s a regular thing to see 4 year olds who are left to brush their teeth by themselves .

Many,many children have free access to snacks all day long . There is no attempt to limit what they eat or drink.

I agree that a lot of parents just don’t insist on it. One of my friends was utterly shocked when I said that, if it comes to it, I would pin my toddler down to brush them (obviously it wasn’t the first option, but it certainly was the last one).

My niece has recently had a load of dental work at 8, turns out her parents have let her brush her own teeth since 3.

There’s a link between antibiotics and tooth decay isn’t there, I wonder if that drives any of it. We’re certainly told often enough that too many antibiotics are being prescribed.

Children are grazing more , eating more times a day , 7 times on average , snacking much more than in previous times.

This not only affects their teeth but obesity rates and general health.

My dentist mentioned he saw loads of kids where the parents think they are being healthy giving them dried fruits like raisins and apricots but then they get stuck in the teeth or the child sucks in them and the acid rits the teeth. He said from teeth health perspective they actually would be better giving them plain chocolate as the sugar washes away but the fruits are like jelly sweets in damage potential

No there is no link between antibiotics and decay. Certain antibiotics when given whilst teeth are forming ,ie in first couple of years of life , can discolour teeth but these antibiotics are no longer given to children for that reason.

Sugary medicines are a problem ie movicol and a lot of medicines given for constipation are highly sugared and can cause decay.

Milk substitutes , like soya milk, particularly in bottles can cause a lot of decay and many milk substitutes like oat , soya etc have been sweetened to make them more palatable .

Unfortunately people also have the impression that unrefined or natural sugar is healthier . It’s not it rots teeth just the same so honey, agave syrup , dates etc used as sweeteners will decay teeth just as easily as the refined white stuff.

In my case it was not brushing my teeth. My late mother was neglecting. I made my DDs brushing their teeth and I restricted sweets/chocolate after lunch.

If you never ate any sugar, you could never brush your teeth and you would not get tooth decay.

You would get gum disease and other issues, but not decay. It’s sugar that causes decay.

The trend is that decay as a whole is decreasing, but now instead of lots of children having one hole, the fewer children that have holes have more and deeper holes. It's the 80:20 rule that 80% of the problem is in 20% of the population.

Dental decay is strongly linked to areas of deprivation; poor diet (sweet fatty food much cheaper than fresh veg etc) parents who struggle to get their children's teeth brushed. Parents had lots of fillings themselves and are scared of the dentist so don't go with their kids. Parents worry about being judged by the dentist. Lots of research has been done, funding is needed to do something about it.

It's really hard to change behaviour... I know I need to go to the gym more, been saying that for 6 months...!

Yes my daughter's (highly regarded) dentist was very clear that her condition was congenital not caused by poor brushing. And I had the same condition as a child and so did my mum. My son on the other hand has perfect teeth. I didn't do anything differently in fact he was the reluctant brusher and she drinks only water whereas he likes fruit juice.

I realise there does need to be a debate about the state of teeth but this needs to acknowledged as part of it too.

Yes , my children had to have milk substitutes (they have anaphylaxis to cows milk) and I was hugely aware of the sugar content.