Journal of public health dentistry
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J Public Health Dent · Jan 2000
Meta AnalysisDietary determinants of dental caries and dietary recommendations for preschool children.
The purpose of this review, commissioned by the Administration for Children and Families, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Health Care Financing Administration, and the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, was to update the evidence of the dietary factors that affect dental caries, and subsequently formulate dietary recommendations for preschool children based on principles of cariology. ⋯ Nutrition education and counseling for the purposes of reducing caries in children is aimed at teaching parents the importance of reducing high frequency exposures to obvious and hidden sugars. Guidelines include: avoiding frequent consumption of juice or other sugar-containing drinks in the bottle or sippy cup, discouraging the behavior of a child sleeping with a bottle, promoting noncariogenic foods for snacks, fostering eating patterns consistent with the Food Guide Pyramid, limiting cariogenic foods to mealtimes, rapidly clearing cariogenic foods from the child's oral cavity either by toothbrushing or by consumption of protective foods, and restricting sugar-containing snacks that are slowly eaten (e.g., candy, cough drops, lollipops, suckers). Along with nutritional factors, a comprehensive approach to preventing dental caries in preschool children must include improved general dietary habits, good oral hygiene, appropriate use of fluorides, and access to preventive and restorative dental care.