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What is the Best Way to Prevent Dental Caries in Children?

 
Generally, when your child goes to the dentist for his or her annual checkup and gets their teeth cleaned, they are given a fluoride treatment. 

Those treatments can be a brush-on technique that takes a few seconds to do or the technique could be to put a small styrofoam tray in your child's mouth that contains a fluoride gel. Is this necessary, since our child brushes with a fluoride toothpaste? Or maybe, your child rinses with a mouthrinse that contains fluoride.

The NCBI, National Center for Biotechnology Information, states that there is no clear suggestion that fluoride varnish is more effective than mouthrinses and the evidence for the comparative effectiveness of fluoride varnishes and gels, and mouthrinses and gels is inconclusive 

This study noted by JADA is also inconclusive on the effect of fluoride varnish.  A qualitative assessment showed that investigators in three of the 12 included trials reported a statistically significant decrease in caries increment with the use of chlorhexidine varnish, those in eight of the trials did not report any difference in caries increment, and those in one trial found an increase in caries increment when compared with 0.1 percent fluoride varnish, although the difference was not statistically significant.
 
Of course, eating healthy is always an important consideration to take care of your child's teeth. Young children with poor eating habits are more likely to experience dental caries. Softdrinks, juice and sugar water allows the sugar to sit on the teeth as long as they are drinking the liquid, plus an additional 20 minutes after drinking. Overall, the findings of the Journal of the American Dental Association, supports the notion that dental health education should encourage parents, primary caregivers and policy-maker to promote healthful eating practices, such as eating breakfast daily, for young children.

We have all heard for years that sugar increases caries or cavities in children. A study was done in developing countries that may not be so up-to-date on this fact. The results indicate that dental caries is highly prevalent and increases with augmented sugar consumption in countries such as La Trinidad, Benguet, and the Philippines.

A recent study in Lithuania found that decreased prevalence and intensity of dental caries among 12- and 15-year-olds were associated with improved oral hygiene, usage of fluoride toothpaste, and fluoride content in drinking water.

In the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Brief Interventions and MI Motivational Interviewing, a study identifies the most beneficial way to involve parents with respect to health-related intervention target, developmental level, nature of parent-child relationship, and the type of proposed treatment would represent significant progress.

Parents need to be motivated to better accept dental recommendations about preventing caries in their children.

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