One child should not have to experience the pain of tooth decay let alone thousands across the country.

But due to lack of education and sugar our children are suffering. (I’ve only just learnt the true impact of all this whilst writing an article on it).

Some five-year-olds eat more than their body weight in sugar each year.

And tooth decay is the number one reason for children to be admitted to hospital nationally.

Yet just the simplest things can prevent the onset of such decay:

– As a general rule if you brush twice a day with a minimum of 1000 parts per million of fluoride toothpaste and have no more than 5 occasions where you eat or drink you should not get decay. This obviously also applies to children’s teeth.
– So brush first thing and last thing in the day and have breakfast, lunch, tea and two snacks In between.

– It takes about an hour for the tooth surface to get strong again after we’ve eaten or drunk and until then the tooth surface is more susceptible to decay and weaker too. This is the reason you shouldn’t brush straight after eating or drinking.

– Certain foods and drinks are higher risk than others eg fizzy things and fresh fruit and fruit juice due to the acid content, this weakens teeth. Sweet things like chocolate and sweets are high risk too and included in this is raisins and crisps.

Both have high amounts of sugar and they get stuck in teeth so the risk increases further.

Having these high risk foods and drinks with a meal and washing down with water to dilute there acid will help but it’s best not to have them frequently.

Sugar facts:  

According to the free Change4Life Sugar Smart app the maximum daily amounts of added sugar children can consume are:

4-6 years = 5 cubes of sugar (19 grams)

7-10 years = 6 cubes of sugar (24 grams)

11+ years = 7 cubes of sugar (30 grams)

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This story formed part of my front page in Wakefield Express this week with the fabulous headline ‘Ee Bah Gum.’