High Sugar Diet Rotting Australian Children’s Teeth

Australian dentists are urging parents to be more switched on and controlling of their children’s high sugar diets as more and more kids are coming into dental surgeries to have a tooth, or several teeth, pulled due to serious decay. 

A dentist at Victoria’s public dental hospital, Sophie Beaumont, has spoken up about the rising numbers of kids she has seen with worrying dental health in the past years. She has claimed that children have been presenting to the office with blackened teeth, pus filled gums and worse, all suspected to be caused by a high sugar diet.

Many of these children had dental health so poor that all of their baby teeth had to be removed by dentists, with some parents waiting until the child was in serious pain before taking them in.

“It’s not uncommon to be taking out 12 or 14 baby teeth in one go. We would do that quite frequently.” she said.

This is not just a small group of kids. Some 1,000 children all over Victoria were put under a full general anaesthetic at the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne last year alone, with most of them needing to have decaying teeth removed. Of this number almost 180 were under three years old.

Parents often do not realise that there are serious consequences for children in these situations. Not only do they tend to develop a distinct fear of dentists, but removing teeth is a massive personal and social stress.

“It is very sad because you can imagine the impact on that child when they have to go to school with no teeth and try to function without them. It is quite upsetting.” she said.

Along with these social issues, allowing dental health to drop so low often means dental health problems well into adulthood relating to issues like crowding and alignment. Many of these problems require very expensive orthodontic treatment, which is often more than families can afford.

What is more worrying that this growing trend is what has emerged from David Manton of the Australian Dental Association. He claimed that as many as 10% of the kids that needed rotten teeth removed were being seen at a later date with the same issues as their diet had not improved.

Clearly there is a serious, and growing, issue in our culture to do with dental health and poor diet. But what can parents do about it?

What Should You Be Doing To Prevent It?

Controlling Diet

There is little doubt that the sudden rise in tooth decay in children in this age group is caused by high sugar diets that are now common in our culture. Kids now eat more sugar than they ever have before, and the foods available to them are entirely out of sync with recommended daily intakes for sugar. A single can of soft drink can contain 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is more than double what a child should consume in one day. Add onto that muesli bars, sweet treats, juice and cereal (among many others) and you have an unsustainable patter guaranteed to cause tooth decay.

It can be really hard for parent to manage the realities of modern life with the dental health of their kids, but swapping packaged snacks for natural fruit and banning soft drinks on all but a few special occasions a year can really make a difference.

Keeping Tabs On Dental Health

Dentists have noted that parents don’t seem to be keeping clear tabs on the dental health of their children, with some even delaying a trip to the dentist until the child was in serious pain. This isn’t a smart idea, as catching tooth decay early gives dentists, parents and children more ability to control the problem before the tooth has to be removed.

Make sure that your children brush regularly, and for younger children physically look at their teeth on a regular basis for signs of decay. Also keep your nose open for unusual smells, which are often clear indicators of tooth rot.

Regular Trips To Dentist

We know that it’s hard to make time to get kids to the dentist, especially when children tend to be apprehensive about most dentist procedures and are often scared of going. However, putting off regular dental treatment, especially if your child is suffering from rotting teeth, is only going to make this fear worse. The truth is that children should be visiting a dentist at least once a year, and possible more if they have dental issues.

In the end, although it can be a challenge to manage the dental health of your child, the alternative is far worse. The thought of your child having to have all of their baby teeth pulled due to rot, to the operated on to avoid infection, and to then deal with the personal and social stigma of having no teeth is not worth avoiding good dental hygiene and regular dental checkups.

To learn more about how to care for your children’s teeth, and your own, visit the Platinum Dental website for tips and resources for keeping your teeth healthy. 

What Do You Do To Prevent Tooth Decay?