Development of dental caries in connection with nutrition

Children’s nutrition in relationship to the development of dental caries

Certainly, children’s diets play an important role in the development of dental caries.

Dental caries is a common disease and can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle, including proper nutrition.

Excessive or frequent feeding of sweet and acidic foods can increase the risk of tooth decay in children.

These foods can damage tooth enamel and contribute to cavities.

Sweet drinks, such as sodas, can also be dangerous for children’s dental health as they contain sugars that can contribute to cavities.

To prevent tooth decay in children, it is important to provide them with a balanced diet that includes fruit, vegetables, whole grains and protein.

It is also advisable to avoid giving sweet or acidic foods between meals, and to limit the consumption of sweet drinks.

Children may want to chew sugar-free gum after each meal, as this helps to remove food debris and stimulate the production of saliva, which neutralizes acidity in the mouth.

Children should be encouraged to drink plenty of water as this can help neutralize acidity and remove food debris. It is also advisable to avoid giving sweet or acidic drinks before bedtime, as this can contribute to cavities forming at night when saliva production is reduced.

Children’s diet plays an important role in preventing tooth decay.

It is ideal to provide them with a balanced diet, avoid acidic and sweet foods, encourage the consumption of water and sanitization by brushing teeth when possible and when this is not possible, the production of saliva for self-cleaning can be stimulated by using sugar-free chewing gum.

These practices should be adopted from childhood to help prevent tooth decay and ensure good long-term dental health.

Adequate attention should be paid to oral hygiene and regular check-ups at the dentist to monitor and prevent the development of caries. It is also important to explain to children the importance of dental care and healthy eating to give them the tools to achieve prevention.

Healthy eating and proper oral hygiene are key to preventing dental caries in children and maintaining optimal dental health in the long term.

Educating and encouraging children to adopt these practices can have a lasting positive impact on their dental health.

Education aimed at following healthy habits begins in childhood.

Children need to be taught from an early age to follow a minimum set of rules that will help them develop harmoniously and be protected from the complications of a chaotic lifestyle.

The health of the teeth is important because this system is linked to the whole body, influencing each other.

Sugars are found in most products available on the market.

However, children’s favorite products can contain excessive amounts of sugar, which can lead to the development of tooth decay.

In the formation of dental caries, fermentable carbohydrates such as sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, or starch will be broken down by cariogenic micro-organisms

There is no special diet that can completely prevent tooth decay. Children can be quite difficult to educate about eating habits once they have been accustomed to a certain way.

It is very difficult to change a person’s or a family’s eating habits, so the sooner you start, the more your child can be guided towards having an oral cavity that is free from cavities or other pathological processes.

General recommendations for a healthy body and teeth:

• The child should eat foods containing cellulose and fiber

• Sugar intake should be limited and controlled

• Meals should be dispersed throughout the day

• No sugar should be consumed between meals

• Cheese and dairy products should be eaten after each meal or between meals, which are known to be cariostatic. Fruit, vegetables, juices and nuts may also be consumed, as long as these products are not supplemented with sugar. Even sophisticated cheeses contain sugar. It is advisable to use natural cheeses as they also contain minerals and vitamins.

In young children, frequent ingestion of drinks and food, especially in plastic bottles, leads to the development of baby bottle tooth decay, characterized by the rapid destruction of milk teeth.

Frequent consumption of milk from the bottle, especially at night, leads to such caries.

It is quite difficult to appreciate the cavity-generating potential of food. In addition to the amount of sugars contained, foods are also cariogenic depending on their consistency.

For example, sticky, viscous products that adhere longer to tooth surfaces are at increased risk of caries.

Foods containing sugar in combination with refined starches are particularly cariogenic, i.e., they produce caries with increased frequency.

At the end of a meal, it is recommended to eat fresh fruit or vegetables, which have the advantage of cleaning the surfaces of the teeth, removing some of the soft deposits left after eating.

The use of chewing gum as an adjuvant in the fight against cavities is recognised, but only if these chewing gums do not contain sugar.

Stopping sugar consumption is impossible, so great emphasis is placed on oral hygiene and methods of stimulating salivary secretion to clean the tooth surfaces.

If these recommendations are followed, knowing the modern theories of dental caries formation, then the acid attack on the teeth is limited and the time for remineralization through saliva is increased.