Last Updated on 8th May 2018
Tooth brushing won’t stop decay for children who snack all day re-iterates Richard Colebourne from Evesham Dental Health Team, following a new study on pre-school children.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow found children who snack all day – compared with just eating at mealtimes – are far more likely to have dental decay.
The snacking habits of more than 4,000 pre-school children were looked at by scientists, who found that tooth brushing only partly protects against the effects of sugary snacks on children’s teeth.
Learning by example
Parental socioeconomic factors, such as a mother’s education level, explain more of the difference in children’s dental decay than diet or oral hygiene.
Experts say that even though milk teeth are temporary, good oral hygiene habits are set in childhood, and this relates both to diet and tooth brushing.
Children who brushed less than once a day or not at all at two years old had twice the chance of having dental decay when they were five, compared with children who brushed their teeth twice a day or more.
Brushing twice a day helps
Restricting sugar intake is desirable for both nutritional reasons and for children’s dental health.
Study co-author, Dr Stephanie Chambers, of the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow said: “Among children eating sweets or chocolate once a day or more, tooth brushing more often – once or twice a day or more – reduced the likelihood of decay compared with less frequent brushing.”
Please contact our understanding and helpful dental team if you are concerned about your child’s dental health and their sugar consumption. We welcome new patients from across Evesham, Pershore, Worcester and Stratford to our Broadway Road based dental practice and we look forward to hearing from you.
- The study is published in the Journal of Public Health.
