The first bell has rung for a great many Italian children and teenagers, who are back in the classroom in person, and we hope they can stay there for the whole school year. School is a vital place of learning, development and education, including education in oral hygiene.
Tooth decay, and we will never tire of repeating it, is the most common infectious disease in the world. It mainly affects children and adolescents, yet it is easy to prevent with good oral hygiene. Research led by a group at New York University's College of Dentistry, involving almost 7,000 primary school pupils, showed that a school-based prevention programme can reduce the incidence of tooth decay in school-age children by more than 50%.
Oral hygiene programmes in schools complement the care provided in dental practices but, above all, they fill the gap in all those cases where a child is never taken to the dentist for check-ups, thereby reducing inequalities in access to treatment and care, stressed Richard Niederman, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion at NYU College of Dentistry and one of the study's authors.
In Italy too, sadly, many families do not take their children for regular dental check-ups, mostly for financial reasons, with the result that by the age of 12 only 30% of young people have not a single cavity. Geographical area of residence, GDP per capita and the unemployment rate are directly associated with both the number of decayed teeth and the number of filled teeth. On top of this, many people believe there is no need to treat baby teeth because they are going to fall out anyway. This idea must be dismissed once and for all: left untreated, tooth decay can lead to infections and tooth loss and cause problems later on. Indeed, the bacteria responsible for decay in baby teeth can attack the permanent teeth, causing decay in those as well.
If we want our children to grow up with healthy teeth, we need to raise awareness and knowledge of good oral health practices and put prevention programmes in place from early childhood.
Here are some tips you can put into practice straight away to prevent tooth decay in young children:
- Before the first tooth appears, clean your baby's gums with a piece of gauze moistened with water.
- As soon as the first baby teeth come through, at around 6–8 months of age, start cleaning them with a children's toothbrush and a tiny amount of fluoride toothpaste (the size of a grain of rice).
- From the age of 3, teeth should be brushed at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste (a pea-sized amount), once in the morning and once before bed. Up to this age, parents should do the brushing.
- Between the ages of 4 and 6, children should learn to brush their teeth on their own, under adult supervision.
- Between the ages of 6 and 12 the permanent dentition is completed, so it is extremely important to step up dental hygiene. Brush with fluoride toothpaste (a chickpea-sized amount) after meals or, at the very least, morning and evening, for two minutes. At this age, problems with tooth alignment may also appear, and these need to be assessed by the dentist.
As for food, it is advisable to follow a balanced diet rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and olive oil, keeping sugar and fat intake to a minimum.
Credits: photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash
