Tooth decay

Tooth decay affects 12% of three-year-olds, says survey

More than one in 10 three-year-olds have tooth decay, the first survey of the age group shows. Public Health England researchers checked the teeth of nearly 54,000 children at nurseries, children’s centres and playgroups.

They found 12% of children had evidence of tooth decay. These youngsters had an average of three teeth that were decayed, missing or filled. Large variations were found from place to place in the study.

In one area – Leicester – 34% of children had tooth decay whereas in others it was only 2%. Researchers also said that some children had a particular type of decay known as early childhood caries. This affects the upper front teeth and spreads quickly to other teeth. It is linked to the consumption of sugary drinks in baby bottles or sipping cups. PHE said that parents should give their children sugary foods and drinks in smaller quantities and less often. It also urged them not to add sugar to weaning foods or drinks.

Parents and carers should also start brushing children’s teeth as soon as the first tooth appeared and supervise their brushing until they the age of seven or eight, PHE said. Previous research by the organisation has shown that by the age of five, one in four children has tooth decay.

Anaesthetic
Sandra White, director of dental public health at PHE, said while there had been “significant improvements” in oral health over the years, the findings were worrying.

“Tooth decay is an entirely preventable disease which can be very painful and even result in a child having teeth removed under general anaesthetic, which is stressful for children and parents alike.” Dr Christopher Allen, of the British Dental Association, said: “Parents and carers may feel that giving sugar-sweetened drinks is comforting, but in reality it’s more likely to cause pain and suffering as it is the major cause of tooth decay in toddlers.

“It’s never too soon to take your toddler to the dentist – ideally no later than 18 months – because dentists can identify and treat tooth decay at the earliest stage and advise parents on tooth brushing and prevention.”

Source: bbc news

Tooth decay is the biggest cause of primary school children

tooth decay

Rotting teeth is the most common cause of primary school aged children being admitted to hospital, new figures show

Almost 26,000 primary school children were treated for tooth decay in the past year, making it the most common reason youngsters are admitted to hospital, research shows.

Nearly 500 children aged five to nine were hospitalized due to rotten teeth each week in 2013-14. In some cases dentists are forced to remove all 20 baby teeth from their young patients.

The figures sparked further calls for a crackdown on sugary drinks and fruit juice. The number of hospital admissions for five to nine-year-olds with dental problems increased by more than 3000 in the just three years, from 22,574 in 2010-11 to 25,812 in 2013-14, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Graham Barnby, honorary vice-president of the British Dental Health Foundation, said: “It all relates to the consumption of sugary, fizzy drinks.” Kathryn Harley, a consultant in paediatric dentistry, said: “We have children who require all 20 of their baby teeth to be extracted. It beggars belief that their diets could produce such a drastic effect.”

She added: “They are going into hospital because they are either presenting with acute problems with pain or because the stage of dental disease, the number of teeth with decay, is such that they need a general anaesthetic.”
Ms Harley said most children need four to eight teeth removed but that having ten to 14 extracted is not uncommon.

She claimed fruit juice should be banned in schools to prevent the problem worsening and pointed the finger at parents who were “inadvertently responsible”.

NHS England also urged parents to take action to protect their childrens’ dental health. “We have some of the lowest rates of tooth decay in the world but these statistics are of course worrying,” the health body said in a statement.

“Parents of young children should discourage them from drinking fizzy drinks as this can lead to tooth decay.” The rising number of young tooth decay patients has also raised questions about whether dentists should carry out more childhood fillings.

Professor Jimmy Steele, head of the dentistry school at Newcastle University, said some dentists are unwilling to carry out filling due to uncertainty about their effectiveness.

They prefer to monitor decay in the baby teeth, he claimed. “Dentists are much less likely nowadays than they used to be to try to fill teeth using conventional measures,” he said.

Tonsillitis is the second most common reason for children of 5 to 9 being admitted to hospital, with 11,522 cases in 2012-13.

Source: The telegraph

High-fluoride paste may prevent white spots from braces

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Adolescents may not be able to get out of wearing braces, but using a high-fluoride toothpaste for the duration could help them avoid white marks the devices often leave behind, according to a new study from Sweden.

The special paste with almost four times the usual fluoride content helped prevent about a third of the chalky-looking spots among kids between the ages of 11 and 16 years old, researchers say.

Past studies have shown that up to 85 percent of patients who wear braces may develop these so-called white spot lesions, which represent local tooth decay and tend to be permanent.

“To reduce this effect, several products are available on the market, but evidence of the effectiveness of the products is lacking,” said Mikael Sonesson, lead author of the study and an orthodontist at Malmö University.

To see whether a high-fluoride toothpaste that patients could use at home would protect against the spots, more than 400 kids at five dental practices who were scheduled to get braces were recruited starting in 2008.

They were randomly divided into two groups, with about half receiving a paste containing 5,100 parts per million fluoride to use at home and the other half receiving paste that was similar in every way, except it contained 1,450 ppm fluoride – the amount in most standard commercial brands, according to the researchers.

Before getting their braces, all the youngsters had detailed photos taken of their teeth and photos were taken again after the braces were removed. The participants wore braces for an average of 1.8 years and received toothpaste supplies for as long as they did.

Two clinicians who did not know which fluoride paste the youngsters had used evaluated all the before-and-after photos to assess the presence and severity of white spots using a four-point scale.

About 10 percent of participants dropped out of the study for various reasons, though no side effects of the toothpastes were reported, Sonesson and his colleagues note in the European Journal of Orthodontics.

When the researchers analyzed results for the remaining participants, they found that about 45 percent of patients who brushed with regular toothpaste developed white spots, whereas only 34.6 percent of those who used the high-fluoride paste developed spots. That translates to about 32 percent fewer white spots in the high-fluoride group.

The results were not surprising, given previous research on the use of fluoride for preventing cavities, according to Nisreen Takulla, a dentist in the Boston area.

“High-fluoride toothpastes are often prescribed for patients at a high risk of dental caries, to be used once a day instead of regular toothpaste, and topical fluorides have also been proven to be very effective for caries control,” said Takulla. Other ways to get higher doses of fluoride include mouth rinses and gels applied to the teeth.

To avoid white spots and cavities when wearing braces, the study’s authors recommend being extra careful with brushing and flossing and avoiding a high-carbohydrate diet, which can be one factor that promotes tooth decay.

Additional fluoride, such as high-fluoride toothpaste, could be another important measure to prevent cavities, Sonesson said.

Such toothpastes should be used once a day in place of regular toothpaste and should not be swallowed; users also should not eat or drink for 30 minutes after brushing with high-fluoride paste.

But it’s not just the toothpaste that’s important, it’s also the way one brushes, according to Takulla.

“Using the right technique to brush, and ensuring all surfaces of the teeth are cleaned, is as important (as the toothpaste used),” Takulla said.

Finally, in addition to home care, a dental exam and cleaning to identify white spots as early as possible, along with the application of a fluoride varnish, should be done every four to six months, Takulla said.

Source: reuters

5 Great Home Remedies for Toothaches

Here are 5 great home remedies for getting rid of your toothache pain until you can make it to the dentist.
Tooth pain can be one of the most debilitating and horrible pains you will ever have, when you have a pain in the mouth, you really do not want to eat let alone talk, all you want is the pain to just be gone. One funny thing about toothaches is that they always seem to happen on a weekend or a holiday when the dentist offices are closed.

Tooth pain is usually caused by a breakdown in tooth enamel, which then creates a cavities and causes the tooth to begin decaying, thus causing the nerve endings to react which results in the toothache. Tooth pain can also be caused by a loose tooth brought on by gum disease gingivitis.

1. If you have a hole in your tooth, or even if you do not have any decay, getting an Orange flavored baby aspirin and putting it directly around the tooth or in the decayed area and let it dissolves naturally can help relieve the pain. The reason for using baby aspirin is the orange flavor has a better taste than plain aspirin.

2. Another great toothache remedies that works well for getting rid of the pain is cloves; this is a spice most people will have right in there kitchen. Ground cloves works much better. You will want to take a small amount of the ground clove and put it just right next to the tooth and just leave it there, you should start to feel some relief in just a few minutes.

3. Trying using a plain wet Lipton tea bag, the tannins in the tea help to reduce swelling along with giving you some pain relief. You will want to use a cold wet tea bag, I recommend putting the tea bag in some ice water for a few minutes before applying unless your tooth is sensitive to the cold.

4. One of the old tried and true home remedies for toothache pain is warm water with table salt. You will want to take some warm water, not to hot and add about a teaspoon of salt ,let dissolve and gently rinse your mouth and spit it , Use the whole glass of salt water this will help reduce swelling and help kill bacteria in your mouth giving you relief.

5. Whiskey or Brandy is another great homemade toothache pain remedy, simply take a Q tip swab or a cotton ball, and you will then dip this in brandy or whiskey, then place it around the area of the tooth pain and let it sit. Repeat as often as necessary till you can get to the dentist.

Source: Yahoo voices