Poor nutrition and oral health surprisingly go hand and hand. Its a correlation that many don’t think of however, it is one that is rather important. Earlier this year an article titled “Malnutrition and its Oral Outcome – A Review” outlines how important a healthy diet is for good oral health and vice versa.
A lack of vitamins and minerals can have adverse affects to children oral health. According to Talebi M, Parisay I. and Mokhtari N. journal article iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in children. Iron deficiency in children can cause dental caries, staining, cause the child’s tongue to become inflamed and formations of sores.
Too much of other foods can be related to poor oral health such as sugar. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services devoted a whole website called “Snack Smart for Healthy Teeth” to help guide parents on nutritional advice dealing with sugar. They point out on the site that the combinations of sugar in your child’s mouth and bacteria in plaque will form acids that are powerful enough to dissolve the hard enamel on your child’s teeth.
At the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada they tied a Five-minute nutrition workup for children in dental practice. They figured that they could use the correlation between poor nutrition and oral health as a tool to counsel overweight and obese children on healthy nutrition without negative connotations regarding weight.
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This is interesting information. I think it is a great idea for dentists to give out relevant nutrition information that could help the patient’s oral health and weight issues. I have seen first hand in my daughter’s school how income, poor nutrition, and poor oral health are all connected. This week at my kid’s school the mobile truck called Smiles for Miles, is there to clean and repair student’s teeth for no charge.