to get my judgey pants on and pull them up HIGH...

[NoWayNoHow]

... when I see pre-school children with rotten/rotting teeth?

By an d large (excluding the many genetic issues people on this thread have experienced) genetics is an excuse for poor diet.

I did a short placement in an African orphanage, 99.9% of the children had amazingly good teeth (amazingly better, even embarrassingly so, than our UK children) except the ones that had been "adopted" by the orphanage owner.

I wonder what the dietary differences were.....given the children were on the hip of the owner all day with a lollipop in their mouth.

Adding that I know some people have genetic/intrinsic conditions such as hypoplasia, dentinogenesis/osteogenesis imperfecta etc etc and I am not denying that. Most children don't have these conditions though and their dental decay cannot be blamed on them. Or genetics.