Children & Bad Breath, Part III

Dyes in some oral care products may contribute to ADHD.

Some oral care products (especially children's) such as mouthwash, toothpaste and gum often contain dyes to give them an attractive and bright appearance. There's nothing wrong with a product wanted to be appealing to eye, right? Well, there might be. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will gather a panel of health care experts to discuss whether or not these dyes are linked to attention-deficit

hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Children & Bad Breath, Part II

When is the best time to take your child to the dentist? According to parents, it's winter. This is a time when the child has gotten used to his or her school routine. Many parents agree, according to a survey done by a dental care advocacy group, Oral Health America. Their survey showed that 63 percent of parents feel that taking their children to the dentist close to the beginning of the academic school year is either extremely or very important. This is a way to get kids ready to go back to school with a clean bill of dental health, thus avoiding problems such as cavities, bad breath and gum disease. Eighty-nine percent of parents surveyed also believe that regular trips to the dentist are vital to their children's overall good health. The survey conducted by Oral Health America was done as part of the group's Fall for Smiles campaign. It is a campaign that hopes to connect communities to resources that can help them improve overall oral health.

Monitoring your child's (or children's) oral health habits and being on the lookout for halitosis-causing illnesses. For older people, dry mouth is fairly common and often leads to bad breath, and as we get older, our production of saliva decreases. However, when bad breath is found in children, the cause is often as simple as not having proper oral care habits -- brushing properly.

Any parent will agree, getting a child to thoroughly brush his or her teeth (or at all) can be quite challenging. As busy as parents are with life in general, often we assume that kids are brushing their teeth when they aren't. Try a brushing schedule for both parent and child where it's a group activity done twice daily. Brushing your teeth together could be fun, and then you can not only check on their little one's method and brushing technique but also serve as an example.

Children & Bad Breath, Part I

Bad breath (halitosis) is often something that adults are aware of, but did you know that children can have halitosis, too? For you parents out there, here is a bit more detail about kids and bad breath.
The most common cause of halitosis in children is simple plaque buildup. It's almost impossible to ensure that children are brushing, flossing and rinsing thoroughly and twice daily. Missed brushings leave the mouth primed for bacteria in the mouth to multiply, thus causing oral odor.
Another is the fact that many children put foreign objects in their mouths -- it's a way for them to learn. Blankets, hair, toys and pacifiers add more bacteria-rich cultures that will grow on the surface of the tongue. Whether it's due to a stuffy nose or to the fact that the baby just has a habit of breathing with the mouth open, breathing through the mouth can dry out saliva. Without this oxygen-rich liquid, anaerobic bacteria can breed quickly, causing bad breath.
The best course of action is to try to monitor the daily regime of proper oral care twice a day. I recommend that kids use 100% Xylitol Mints or Chewing Gums 4-5 times a day to help improve halitosis (and this will significantly lower the decay risk at the same time).

Invisalign vs Veneers

Image by brittanysoup via Flickr

Comfort, esthetics, and treatment time have always been the primary concerns for the adult patient when it comes to orthodontic treatment. Invisalign, when compared to other teeth straightening options, has been shown to solve many of these concerns.

Veneers have been used for a long time to address many cosmetic dental concerns. Invisalign and veneers cannot necessarily be compared directly with each other even though they address many of the same problems. Veneers are considered a “quick fix” for a whole host of dental issues including crowding, gaps between teeth, overlapping of teeth, irregular alignment, discoloration, tooth-size discrepancies, etc.

The major advantage of Invisalign is that it is virtually impossible to see while it is being worn and at the same time it is taking care of alignment and crowding problems that could be affecting the overall health of your teeth. It is not faster than getting veneers, but over a lifetime Invisalign is a much better value since it does not have to be redone over and over again. Straighter teeth means it is much easier to maintain your teeth for a lifetime – less food, plaque and debris getting stuck in those crowded, overlapped areas. Veneers are a quick fix and sometimes are an excellent option, but nearly all of Dr. Derenzy’s patients have a discussion about the benefits of having teeth straightened before any type of cosmetic smile enhancement.

Even if veneers are needed, for whatever reason, properly aligning the teeth with Invisalign can decrease the total number of veneers needed and/or improve the appearance of veneers placed by closing gaps, reducing crowding and more ideally aligning teeth. This can result in a significant cost savings. So, before you go to the dentist for veneers, see Dr. Derenzy for a free consultation to review your options for avoiding veneers or at least limiting them. Often, Dr. Derenzy can straighten your teeth with Invisalign and this will be all you would need. If veneers are still necessary to correct cosmetic defects after Invisalign, the veneer preparations on your teeth can be much more conservative, leaving more of your natural tooth behind.

Kids should not consume energy drinks

Here's a nice article from the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding the negative effects of Energy Drinks. You've all seen the 5-hour energy commercials on TV by now. The confusion is that kids playing sports often think these are the same thing as Gatorade, which is far from the truth. Read on, learn more, and drink water while you're doing it....

Yours in dental health - Dr. Derenzy

June 20, 2011
AAP: Kids should not consume energy drinks
Water should be the source of hydration for children and adolescents
By Karen Fox, ADA News staff

Dentists routinely caution patients about the over-consumption of soda pop, juice and sports drinks that pack little if any nutritional value and take a toll on teeth.

Now the American Academy of Pediatrics is taking aim at energy and sports drinks, saying that in most cases, kids don’t need them and some products contain substances that can be harmful to children.

In the June issue of Pediatrics, the report’s co-authors point out the differences between sports drinks and energy drinks.

Sports drinks—which contain carbohydrates, minerals, electrolytes and flavoring—are intended to replace water and electrolytes lost through sweating during exercise. Sports drinks can be helpful for young athletes engaged in prolonged, vigorous physical activities, but in most cases they are unnecessary on the sports field or in the school lunchroom.

“For most children engaging in routine physical activity, plain water is best,” said Holly J. Benjamin, M.D., co-author. “Sports drinks contain extra calories that children don’t need and could contribute to obesity and tooth decay. It’s better for children to drink water during and after exercise, and to have the recommended intake of juice and low-fat milk with meals. Sports drinks are not recommended as beverages to have with meals.”

Energy drinks contain substances not found in sports drinks that act as stimulants, such as caffeine, guarana and taurine.

Caffeine—by far the most popular stimulant—has been linked to a number of harmful health effects in children, including effects on the developing neurologic and cardiovascular systems. Energy drinks are never appropriate for children or adolescents, said Dr. Benjamin and co-author Marcie Beth Schneider, M.D. In general, caffeine-containing beverages, including soda, should be avoided.

“In many cases, it’s hard to tell how much caffeine is in a product by looking at the label,” Dr. Schneider said. “Some cans or bottles of energy drinks can have more than 500 mg of caffeine, which is the equivalent of 14 cans of soda.”

Routine ingestion of carbohydrate-containing sports drinks by children and adolescents should be avoided or restricted, AAP recommends, because they can increase the risk of overweight and obesity, as well as dental erosion. Water, not sports drinks, should be the principal source of hydration for children and adolescents.

“There is a lot of confusion about sports drinks and energy drinks, and adolescents are often unaware of the differences in these products,” said Dr. Schneider. “Some kids are drinking energy drinks—containing large amounts of caffeine—when their goal is simply to rehydrate after exercise. This means they are ingesting large amounts of caffeine and other stimulants, which can be dangerous.”

Frequent drinking of soft drinks may be linked to obesity, diabetes and dental erosion, said Dr. Brett Dorney, a dentist and past president of the Academy of Sports Dentistry. The consumption of these drinks has increased 300 percent in the last 20 years, and serving sizes have ballooned from 185 grams in the 1950s to 500 grams in the 1990s.

“Sports drinks have erosive potential,” Dr. Dorney said, adding that the degree of damage will be influenced by the pattern of consumption, salivary flow rates, saliva buffering capacity, pellicle formation and the tooth surface’s chemical composition.

“Athletes will most often consume sports drinks after exercise when the volume and protective effects of saliva will be reduced,” said Dr. Dorney. “The erosive acids in sports drinks have the ability to dissolve even fluoride-rich enamel, which normally inhibits dissolution by the weaker acids, causing caries.”

Dr. Dorney encourages his colleagues in dentistry to caution patients—and parents of young patients—about the negative properties of sports drinks.

“To minimize dental problems, advise parents and athletes to hydrate with water before, during and after sports,” he said.

If sports drinks are consumed:

reduce the frequency and contact time;
swallow immediately and do not swish them around the mouth;
rinse mouthguards only in water;
seek out dentally friendly sports drinks;
discuss training and hydration protocol with a dentist.