Sugar and Children’s Teeth

Parents often ask me about their children’s tooth decay and juices and what they should drink. I am not a nutritionist and am in no way what one would call a “health food junkie” but what all evidence seems to point to is that as a country we have been affected by sugar in our diets. We know sugar causes tooth decay. It’s a metabolic process of bacteria and sugar that creates tooth decay. We can’t remove the bacteria, only the sugar. We can remove the bacteria with our oral hygiene but in between brushing we eat and thus the need to control sugar.

I’m including a link to a very informative lecture on what sugar does to us and how we might begin to stop this childhood obesity and diabetes epidemic. This link was pointed out to me by an orthodontist friend of mine from Texas. His wife is a pediatric dentist and it is always very informative to talk dentistry with folks who see a lot of children day in and day out. Although my practice is almost fifteen percent pediatric patients and I take a lot of continuing education courses in pediatrics it is great to hear what happens in the practice of boots on the ground folks in the battle against childhood caries.

As long as there are companies benefiting from the selling of pop, juices, and other dangerous food items there will need to be a healthy debate about what we can and do feed our children.