Australia - Toddler dental disgrace
Toddler dental disgrace
Carmel Egan July 1, 2007 THOUSANDS of Victorian preschoolers and toddlers — some as young as two — are undergoing radical dental surgery under general anaesthetic to remove several, and sometimes all, of their baby teeth.The oral health of Victoria's preschoolers is so poor that Dental Health Services Victoria says the average six-year-old starts school with three to four teeth decayed, missing or needing filling. While health authorities have poured money into campaigns targeting childhood obesity, what the dental service calls the "twin epidemic" of the alarming state of juvenile oral health has been largely overlooked.The dental service has joined calls for tighter government regulation of food labelling, after a survey of oral health literacy in Victorian primary schools — released early to The Sunday Age — found many parents were confused about which foods and drinks posed the greatest threat to their children's teeth. Hidden sugar in food and drink is the main culprit, oral health experts say, but confusing nutritional messages on packaging, misleading marketing and the use of bottled water over fluoridated tap water are adding to the crisis.Of the 11,607 children aged six and under treated at the Royal Dental Hospital in the 11 months to June, 770 had a general anaesthetic before undergoing complex dental surgery. Of those "a very significant proportion" had all their teeth pulled out, a spokeswoman said.These figures do not include the thousands of Victorian children who receive dental care under the private system, which does not collate dental figures. A recent Sunday Age investigation revealed the sugar content of many standard grocery items has increased over the years despite marketers' claims of health and nutrition benefits. "Consumers are being hoodwinked by misleading health claims," said Fiona Preston, the Dental Health Service's general manager of health promotion. Parents were bombarded with "99 per cent fat free" messages, leading them to buy products with higher sugar levels, not realising they can be equally fattening and bad for oral health. Ms Preston said the school survey showed parents knew that sweet food caused decay, but they did not know how to identify which foods had a high sugar content. "We are seeing increased rates of oral disease despite fluoride in the water and better education," she said. "We have 91 per cent of parents and guardians saying they know that fruit juice causes tooth decay but consumption is increasing." Dental health statistics reveal that 42 per cent of six-year-olds treated by the School Dental Service in 2006 had at least one tooth missing, a tooth requiring filling or one so badly decayed it had to be extracted. Among 12-year-olds the figure was even higher, with 58 per cent having at least one tooth that had to be filled or removed. Dental Health Services Victoria's clinical director Dr Hanny Calache said there had been a noticeable increase in pediatric dental caries in the past two to three years, and the main cause was the frequency and timing of sugar consumption, especially of sweetened drinks such as cordial, fruit juice and soft drinks.He also warned parents against giving toddlers bed-time bottles, even with plain milk, because the milk pools around the teeth and as the lactose ferments into sugar, it causes decay. Some health professionals and advocacy groups want state and federal health ministers to address root causes of obesity and poor dental health by banning advertising of food to children and overhauling labelling rules to highlight sugar content.
Three quarters of Victoria is fluoridated
Carmel Egan July 1, 2007 THOUSANDS of Victorian preschoolers and toddlers — some as young as two — are undergoing radical dental surgery under general anaesthetic to remove several, and sometimes all, of their baby teeth.The oral health of Victoria's preschoolers is so poor that Dental Health Services Victoria says the average six-year-old starts school with three to four teeth decayed, missing or needing filling. While health authorities have poured money into campaigns targeting childhood obesity, what the dental service calls the "twin epidemic" of the alarming state of juvenile oral health has been largely overlooked.The dental service has joined calls for tighter government regulation of food labelling, after a survey of oral health literacy in Victorian primary schools — released early to The Sunday Age — found many parents were confused about which foods and drinks posed the greatest threat to their children's teeth. Hidden sugar in food and drink is the main culprit, oral health experts say, but confusing nutritional messages on packaging, misleading marketing and the use of bottled water over fluoridated tap water are adding to the crisis.Of the 11,607 children aged six and under treated at the Royal Dental Hospital in the 11 months to June, 770 had a general anaesthetic before undergoing complex dental surgery. Of those "a very significant proportion" had all their teeth pulled out, a spokeswoman said.These figures do not include the thousands of Victorian children who receive dental care under the private system, which does not collate dental figures. A recent Sunday Age investigation revealed the sugar content of many standard grocery items has increased over the years despite marketers' claims of health and nutrition benefits. "Consumers are being hoodwinked by misleading health claims," said Fiona Preston, the Dental Health Service's general manager of health promotion. Parents were bombarded with "99 per cent fat free" messages, leading them to buy products with higher sugar levels, not realising they can be equally fattening and bad for oral health. Ms Preston said the school survey showed parents knew that sweet food caused decay, but they did not know how to identify which foods had a high sugar content. "We are seeing increased rates of oral disease despite fluoride in the water and better education," she said. "We have 91 per cent of parents and guardians saying they know that fruit juice causes tooth decay but consumption is increasing." Dental health statistics reveal that 42 per cent of six-year-olds treated by the School Dental Service in 2006 had at least one tooth missing, a tooth requiring filling or one so badly decayed it had to be extracted. Among 12-year-olds the figure was even higher, with 58 per cent having at least one tooth that had to be filled or removed. Dental Health Services Victoria's clinical director Dr Hanny Calache said there had been a noticeable increase in pediatric dental caries in the past two to three years, and the main cause was the frequency and timing of sugar consumption, especially of sweetened drinks such as cordial, fruit juice and soft drinks.He also warned parents against giving toddlers bed-time bottles, even with plain milk, because the milk pools around the teeth and as the lactose ferments into sugar, it causes decay. Some health professionals and advocacy groups want state and federal health ministers to address root causes of obesity and poor dental health by banning advertising of food to children and overhauling labelling rules to highlight sugar content.
Three quarters of Victoria is fluoridated
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