Bad Teeth...Bad Grades!

A recent study at USC and published in the Journal of Public Health verifies that children with poor oral health have, on average, lower grades. They also miss more days of school due to tooth aches and dental appointments. It also pointed out that parents of these students miss more days of work due to the need to care for their children's dental appointments.

One of the tragedies here is to know this is so simple to prevent, though without adequate information, parents find it difficult to accomplish. An early start (age 1) with good instruction will demonstrate to parents how simple it is to give children an excellent start to a lifetime of good oral health.  Cavity free, healthy, beautiful smiles.

2 Minutes 2 Times

Brush your child's teeth for 2 minutes, 2 times a day!

As I have told you in previous blogs, doing fillings and crowns on teeth does not improve oral health or dental health. Effective prevention of dental disease requires a little simple education of the patient and the desire to have healthy, cavity free beautiful smiles. With that in mind the California Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatric Dentists and 12 other organizations have started a nationwide educational program designed to help patients improve their own oral health and prevent cavities.


2min2x.org is the website it will originate from and where you can find all the information needed to create oral health for you and your children. It includes great videos to educate, entertain and motivate your children to want and achieve good oral health.  Check it out!

Winning With Smiles - Pediatric Dentistry
Meadow Vista, California 95722

Will My Child Suffer Cavities Like I Have?

The standard (and trite) answer is, of course, it depends on how you care for them.  This leads most people to think of how often they brush, what toothpaste they use, do they use a mouth rinse and perhaps whether they are an excessive candy eater.  Few people think more broadly of what they eat or feed their kids, especially beverages.  We speak extensively in our office about beverages, both for adults and especially for children.

Let me cite one piece of literature (among many showing this problem).  Dr. Philip Marsh was interested in what happens to the oral biofilm of bacteria developing for children sipping juice or other sweet beverages.  Children today are commonly weaned from breast milk or formula to "healthy" juices, typically diluted a bit.  This then evolves into juice or other sweet beverages for the toddler in a handy and available sippy/tippy cup.

Using known data on saliva flow and chemistry, food flow, and the various micro environments in and around teeth, he designed a research study to monitor tooth biofilm.  Dr. Marsh then introduced juice periodically to mimic a child sipping some juice from a sippy cup or bottle and introduced plaque bacteria (similar to how children get these bacteria in slobbery kisses and feedings with parents).  With sampling over time he measured the bacterial balance in the biofilm developing on tooth surfaces.

Tooth biofilm in a healthy mouth typically contains about 1-2 % of the cavity causing bacteria.  While mimicking a child's juice sipping pattern Dr Marsh measured the shift in cavity causing bacteria from 1-2 % to over 50%.  At that level, those bacteria control the biofilm, supporting the acid loving bacteria and destroying the "healthy" bacteria in the biofilm.  Most distressing is that once this biofilm balance has established on the child's developing teeth, about age 2 ½ to 3 years old, it is extremely difficult to change.  It will likely be a high cavity inducing biofilm the rest of the child's life.

Ouch! … $ $ $ $ too!

Please don’t introduce juice and other sweet beverages to your child until they are at least 4 years old.  Even then, limit it to meals.

Dr. Scott Thompson - Pediatric Dentistry

Babies Don't Come with Cavities.

We don't inherit “soft teeth” from our parents and babies don’t come with cavities.

Cavities are caused by a bacterial disease called “caries.”  We catch this disease from our close family and friends.  Like any other contagious disease, how we take care of ourselves determines how our body will handle the disease.  How the family takes care of oral health will affect the cavity rate of the infant and toddler.  Correct family oral care will limit the contagion of the disease.  Correct oral care for the infant and toddler will limit the survival of the bacteria that cause cavities.  Diet and beverage patterns for infants and toddlers will either limit or support the cavity causing bacteria.  The disease, “caries,” establishes its lifetime pattern while the baby teeth are emerging from age 6 months to 30 months old.

Establishing a dental home with a dental office that offers well baby exams will give you the information you need to create a lifetime of dental health for your baby.  Other advantages of establishing an early dental home with your family dentist or pediatric dentist are:

1)      Money savings.  Children who visit the dentist before their fast birthday have an average 40 % lower dental cost during their first 5 years.  These savings will continue through life.

2)      Enamel defects, if addressed early, can be remedied with simple techniques to prevent tooth deterioration.

3)      Early dental cavities can be healed rather than filled if detected early enough and addressed at home with proper information and prevention.  Infants don't come with cavities.  Creating a no cavity environment for your baby can lead to a no cavity environment for a lifetime.

The first tooth deserves a dental home.

Next Blog: 1% or 50%?

Fillings Don't Stop Cavities

Few people realize that a filling does nothing to prevent another cavity. Cavities are caused by bacteria (germs) that live in our mouth. These bacteria infect our mouths as soon as we have teeth. The disease they cause is called caries. The acids and metabolic by products of these bacteria attack the teeth and gums. For the teeth the end product of the disease is a hole in the tooth; a cavity.

When you think about it, cleaning out that hole and patching it with a filling does absolutely nothing to stop the bacterial disease that is active in your entire mouth. As a matter of fact, the edge of the filling, no matter how good the filling, is a perfect niche for the bacteria to gather and begin eroding the tooth down the side of the filling. The result is a new cavity under the filling! Very discouraging.

The answer we all want is how to control the disease. If you are willing to dedicate 2 minutes of your day to the job you can control the disease. Controlling the disease means no more cavities. Even for people at high risk for cavities the disease can be controlled and cavities prevented.

Most people brush their teeth but do not get their teeth adequately clean because they have never known how to measure how well they are doing. When you establish a relationship with a dentist the very first task should be to learn from the dentist, hygienist and staff how to control caries (the disease) in your mouth. Any fillings done before the disease is controlled are at high risk of failing because new decay will invade the edges of the filling.

People who control the disease can get their fillings with confidence they will last for a very very long time.

If you have not learned from your dentist how to control caries in your mouth and how to measure at home how effective you are, then that is the first thing you should do, before more cavities are filled.

Next Blogs: 1) Measuring Effective Tooth Brushing.  2) The inherent weakness of the bacteria.  3) Help for High Risk Mouths  4) Reading Your Gums