Preschoolers underachieving in dental health

ATLANTA – Preschoolers today are more likely to have cavities than children did in the early 1990s, possibly because they are drinking more soda and juice drinks and less milk and water with fluoride, according to the most comprehensive government report on oral health in 25 years.

The percentage of children ages 2 to 5 who have had at least one cavity in their baby teeth was 28 percent in 1999-2004, up from 24 percent in 1988-1994.

The latest data are from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is considered the gold standard because thousands of participants were interviewed and examined by dentists.

Tooth decay in adults and children had been decreasing since the 1960s, says the report’s lead author, Bruce Dye, a dentist and epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. “This is the first time we’re seeing a rise, and it’s in the baby teeth of young children.

“Baby teeth are just as important as adult teeth,” Dye says. “We know from population studies that kids who have cavities in their baby teeth are more likely to have cavities in their adult teeth. And premature loss of baby teeth will more likely create crowding problems for adult teeth.”

The study didn’t examine causes for the increase in cavities, but Dye says it may be because of an increase in sweetened beverage consumption and a decrease in the intake of milk and fluorinated water.

And, Dye says, busy lifestyles also may be a factor.

“Parents may also be less likely to spend those extra few minutes brushing their young kids’ teeth,” he says.

Mary Hayes, a pediatric dentist in private practice in Chicago and a spokeswoman for the American Dental Association, advises parents to brush their children’s teeth until the kids are old enough to tie their own shoes.

Parents of preschoolers who want to do everything themselves should brush their children’s teeth first, and then let the kids do their own teeth, she says.

Hayes says she tells parents that a child should have no more than 4 ounces of juice a day.

“After that I call it candy water,” she says.

Hayes says she and her colleagues have been seeing more cavities in children for the past decade.

“It’s difficult enough to fix cavities in any children, but it’s especially difficult in children who don’t understand what you are trying to fix. They can be scared and have short attention spans,” she says.

“It’s horrifying that one in four kids is getting cavities.”

But overall, dental health in this country is improving, with fewer cavities in older kids and teens and fewer adults with gum disease, say CDC researchers.

The report found that:

•50 percent of children ages 6 to 11 had at least one cavity in their baby teeth in 1999-2004, down from 51 percent.

•59 percent of adolescents, 12 to 19, had at least one cavity in adult teeth in the most recent survey, down from 68 percent.