- by Jonathan Brown
A Leeds dentist who sees some of the worst cases of childhood tooth decay in Yorkshire is urging parents to stop the rot.
The warning comes ahead of the broadcast of a new two-part Channel 4 documentary called ‘Junk Food Kids: Who’s To Blame?’, which was largely filmed in Leeds hospitals and will air on Wednesday at 10pm.
Uncovering some of the most extreme cases of childhood obesity and associated tooth decay, the series features one 13-year-old who weighs 16st and is being assessed for £12,000 gastric band surgery.
Last year the YEP revealed that nearly one in five children in Leeds suffer from tooth decay by the age of three – seven per cent higher than the national average.
Stephen Fayle, a consultant paediatric dentist at Leeds General Infirmary’s Leeds Dental Institute which features in the programme, said that although the series focuses on the worst end of the spectrum, childhood tooth decay is a “big public health risk”.
He said: “Between five to nine years of age, dental decay is the most common reason why children are coming into hospital care – many are having to have a general anaesthetic to have teeth removed.
“We need to make sure parents understand the importance of doing basic stuff before their children get to three like using fluoride toothpaste two times a day and avoiding letting children go to sleep with fruit based drinks – they often think it’s healthy. Even bottles of milk and formula milk is highly decay producing.”
Mr Fayle, who estimates that he takes out 7,000 to 10,000 children’s teeth a year, revealed that numerous times each year he will see children under three that have decay in all 20 baby teeth.
In 2013/14 26,000 children had to go to hospital to have rotten teeth removed under general anaesthetic in Britain, largely as a result of poor diet and a lack of tooth brushing.
Visit www.nhs.uk/livewell/dentalhealth for information on dental health or www.channel4.com/programmes/junk-food-kids-whos-to-blame for more on the Channel 4 programme.
1 comment:
They no what causes tooth decay, we get the same crap every time, sugar, soda's,poor diet,and education of the parents all need to be addressed,so why are we not doing it...We read the reports but nothing seems to be done that even comes close to calling it "prevention"...The statistics thrown around by public health officials are a joke as every area seems to have a tooth decay problem and sure enough the numbers are there to back up there claim,how convenient i hear you say...During the attempted fluoridation of Southampton public health have shown there true colours and to most it's clear that our health is not at the top of there agenda,but adding a waste chemical that would normally have to be specially treated to even come close to making it safe is...Strange how this chemical with it's many heavy metals has no side effects nor health risks attached to consuming it over a lifetime,remarkable,so why cant we just dump it somewhere else,a question asked many times i'm sure and the only answer possible is because it's a waste chemical that would harm the environment which is the whole reason why they stopped it being vented from chimneys and brought into law that it must now be captured using industrial wet scrubbers,it's still the same stuff but now magically is great for your teeth and safe to drink for the rest of you life...
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