Our children's teeth in rotten state


09 June 2005 12:32

A growing number of children in Norfolk are suffering with tooth decay, according to new research.

About 38 per cent of five year olds in the county have rotting teeth due to a diet consisting of fizzy drinks, sugary diets and a lack of health service dentists.

The research, carried out by the South East Public Health Observatory — a branch of the NHS — warned that the problem is no longer confined to deprived areas with an increasing number of middle class families being affected.

However health bosses at Norwich Primary Care Trust believe the state of children's teeth in area has improved with fewer fillings being carried out than 10 years ago.

The official report showed that only three health authorities in the country had achieved government targets set in 2003, which aimed to have no more than 30 per cent of five year olds with tooth decay.

This included none of them having more than one tooth missing, a decayed or filled tooth.

Norfolk was one of the counties that failed to reach this standard, along with Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, which had about 38 per cent of five years olds with some form of dental decay.

Jonathan Frost is the principal dentist at the Cotman House dental surgery on St Martins Palace Plain.

He said: "There has been no improvement in tooth decay among children. I see many four to five years olds with decaying teeth and gums.

"I don't think it has anything to do with class or how much money parents earn.

"Most parents try to do their best, but they don't realise the hidden sugars in many processed foods as well as the damage fizzy drinks can do to teeth."

Mr Frost said there were foods that many parents thought were harmless like baked beans and tomato ketchup but they could damage teeth and cause decay.

He said the main problem was a lack of government funding.

"Every conscientious dentist would like to spend time educating children about the food they eat," he said. "But we do not have enough funding or time to do this. We don't want to spend our time doing fillings — we would like to educate families more but we don't have the opportunity to do this.

"Diet definitely needs to improve to ensure children's teeth are not so decayed."

Anna Suckling, nutritionist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said the main problems are the drinks children consumed.

"We would encourage water and milk as basic drinks — the use of squashes is not a necessity," she said. "Any fruit juice should be unsweetened and diluted. There is a high concentration of natural fruit sugars in juice.

"We would also encourage the inclusion of a range of dairy foods to meet calcium requirements to aid teeth and bone development. This includes yoghurt, milk, cheese, plus non dairy foods such as fortified soya products, apricots, boney fish, seeds, pulses and spinach."

Janice Bradfield, spokesperson at the N&N, said they would be interested in finding out more about the report.

"Children have fewer fillings than they did 10 years ago so dental health seems to be better," she said. "In Norfolk general health is good so this usually means teeth are quite healthy too.

"We would advise parents who are worried about their children's teeth to cut down on sugar and use flouride toothpaste."

For more information about the study log onto www.sepho.org.uk

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