Two year old Aneesah Azad is already showing signs of tooth decay. Like many children, she had difficulty giving up her bottle.

Ameesah's father, Abul, says, "we changed to the cup. It was hard I think for her teeth. We had to do that. She likes to drink more juice than milk."

But constantly sipping juice and other sweetened drinks is bad for the teeth.

Tana Wyman, Dental Hygenist at the Vancouver Communoty Dental Clinic, says, "some of the things we see in the training cups or even in bottles are the sunny delight or even koolaid. The amount of sugar, probably parents don't know alot about. One of the biggest culprits is 100% straight fruit juice."

To prevent tooth decay, community dental hygenists are now asking parents to choose water for their children, and save the milk and juice for meal times.

Wyman says, "that's a better time to serve fluids. Anything else that's sweeter because theu have saliva in their mouth when they're eating a meal and that helps clear."

Sweetened drinks and constant snacking aren't the only probem. Children's teeth need to be brushed twice a day with toothpaste containing fluoride from the time their tooth erupts.

Experts say all children should see a dentist by the age of one so there's a chance of staving off any damage.

Dentist Pam Glassby says, "if we see some issues starting, if we see some signs of early tooth decay, we can stop it from progressing, by using multiple applications of fluoride and change the habits of parents at that young age."

Now that he's got more information in hand, Abul is hoping to put it into practice, not just for Aneesah, but for her younger brother as well.

So drink more water, and limit juice consumption to half a cup a day, and get your children to eat more whole fruits instead. By the way, parents should be taking care of their own teeth, because studies show cavity-causing bacteria can be easily spread from parents to their children, through hand and mouth contact and the sharing of utensils...

Wednesday April 26, 2006