What’s really damaging your kids’ teeth

Kids who take care of teeth can still end up with mouthful of little rotters

Children who brush after every meal and consume little sugar might still get rotten teeth.

But why?

For decades this has baffled parents who thought they were doing all they could to protect their youngsters’ teeth.

Today, research has uncovered some answers after Auckland University and Starship Children’s Hospital examined information collected by the country’s largest longitudinal study of child development, Growing Up in New Zealand.

It turns out refined starches — such as white bread, rice, noodles and some breakfast cereals — can be damaging for children’s teeth.

The study — funded by the Starship Foundation — cross-referenced dental records of more than 4000 children with information about their dental hygiene and food consumption, which was collected when they were 2 years old.

The study lead author, University of Auckland public-health physician Dr Simon Thornley, said the biggest surprise was the strong link between refined starches and dental decay.

“This should inform our oralhealth promotion work in this country because many people would not be aware that frequently consuming foods such as white bread, rice and noodles could put children at greater risk of dental caries [cavities],” he says.

Foods with greater risk attached included white bread, white rice, noodles, refined breakfast cereals, fruit juice, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, ice cream, confectionery and cake.

Thornley said colleagues who had researched dental care in Cambodia — where rice and noodles were a staple — found similar results.

Comparatively, the study found a lower number of dental caries in children who had a frequent intake of wholemeal or whole-wheat bread, and vegetables from the brassica family such as broccoli, and cheese.

The study authors noted that behaviours associated with fewer dental caries included brushing teeth more regularly; parental help with tooth brushing and brushing teeth after a snack or a drink.

Thornley said it was positive to learn that three-quarters of all children studied had no cavities at their first community dental appointment.

But ethnicity and socioeconomic status were strongly associated with tooth decay. Pacific children were four times more likely than Pa¯keha¯ children to have four or more dental caries at their first community dental appointment. Asian and Ma¯ori children were twice as likely to have four or more dental caries at their first appointment.

“The link between socioeconomic status and diet reinforces what we’ve learned from other research that poverty and deprivation mean people are less likely to be able to afford good quality food that is nutritious and beneficial for overall health, including oral health.”

Paediatric dentist at Starship Children’s Hospital, Dr Katie Bach, said thousands of New Zealand children faced hospital treatment every year because of tooth decay.

“Dental caries is the leading cause of avoidable hospital treatment for children in this country and action is needed to ensure that children do not have to endure potentially invasive oral surgery.”

This should inform our oral-health promotion work.

Dr Simon Thornley