Linking Tooth Decay and Growth of Children

When it comes to our children’s health, as parents, we’d go to great lengths just to ensure they grow healthy and normal. Protecting your kids’ teeth and gums is definitely an all year-round business, no day offs and certainly no holiday breaks. Although we have been seeing a great deal of toothpaste advertisements saying how important good dental hygiene really is to our children’s health, some people still don’t give a fuss.
How you teach your children about the relevance of brushing and flossing may benefit them to prevent difficult dental procedures in the future. While good dental health is a serious subject for everyone, regardless of age, introducing healthy habits to kids at their early age may prevent them the horror typically related to visiting the dentist’s clinic. This fear often comes from individual experience with sore and lengthy procedures or seeing other kids' and family members undergo similar experience. By creating a home environment that has a good example to children, you’ll be turning dentist visits a stress-free experience for your children.

Studying teeth, growth and development
Surprisingly, oral health and overall health are knotted tightly. Oral diseases and medical conditions can affect overall health. Medical conditions often have oral implications and consequences. Symptoms of illness or misuse can be seen in the mouth. Poor oral health can intensely affect your children’s health and overall well-being. An early tooth loss which is caused by progressive tooth decay can be the cause of failure to develop in young children.
There have been recent studies showing that tooth decay has an effect to children’s growth. These studies have found that tooth decay essentially hinders growth in children. These findings are telling parents that it is important to take pediatric dental care very seriously and regular checkups with the dentist shouldn’t be their least priority. One of the worst things that can happen to your children is when they neglect their dental health. Although it is important to teach proper oral hygiene to children has an effect, not most people –even our parents – take it really seriously.
A new study is suggesting that there is a correlation between tooth decay and stunted growth among children. This study, which was conducted by researchers at the University College London in in Saudi Arabia, came from the need to form a more decisive result. This is also because earlier studies could not come up with definite evidence on whether dental health has an effect of growth in children.
To be able to get the data they need, researchers have studied the dental records of children aging between six and eight. Each child was classified with their oral health and was graded on a scale that defines the state of decaying, incomplete and complete teeth. They called it as the DMFT index. This index is an ingrained measure in dental epidemiology even up to now, which has been very useful for well more than 70 years. The index can rank a subject from 0 to 28 or 32, depending if researchers choose to include the third molars.
Link to pediatric growth
After analyzing the data gathered from all the subjects and cautiously associating the results, they have found out that there is really a link between growth and tooth decay, specifically in their height and weight. Severe cases of tooth decay had a greater chance of becoming underweight or stunted than their children with good dental hygiene.
The conclusions stood even after counting external factors like demographics and social values in the research. The study needs more examination by independent groups to confirm the results; based on what these studies show. It is just to note that tooth decay affects the development and nutrition of children.

The basics: Oral health
One of the most significant things you can teach your children is to take care of their teeth. Not only are you doing yourself a favor but you are providing them a better overall health. It is recommended that you bring them to the dentist regularly and as often as your dental team suggest. This will later on make them used to the clamors, smells and surroundings of a dental clinic and prepare them for future clinic visits. The earlier their visits begin, the more comfortable the children will be.