A beautiful smile of pearly milk white teeth from your preschooler at the end of a long day, is heart-warming for any parent. But this is not what some parents in the UAE see when their young children greet them because dental health is extremely poor here. According to a recent article in this newspaper, 75 per cent of children aged 5 and 6 have cavities. This is an exceedingly high percentage of tooth decay in disturbingly young children.
Children suffer tremendous pain, have trouble sleeping and concentrating in school because of poor dental health. And even though they’re young, children can experience embarrassment from tooth decay. Teachers and classmates might avoid sitting next to them or speaking directly to them because of bad breath. Unkind children are quick to tease others and may say that they are dirty or not being cared for properly. If the tooth decay gets to the point that a child needs dental treatment, some children may end up missing many days of school and have difficulty catching up with schoolwork.
There are many gifts parents can give their children, which will serve them through a lifetime. These include lots of love, good morals, excellent behaviour and the best education possible. The gift of good habits is a priceless present, which can set children up for a lifetime of healthy living. Dental health is an important part of overall health and habits that cover good nutrition and valuable oral hygiene are the responsibility of parents and families. Surely, all parents want their children to be healthy and have a beautiful smile.
In this region there is a grave misconception that milk teeth are not important, but any dentist will confirm that they are. Once milk teeth start to decay, it can affect the permanent teeth, even leading to misaligned teeth and the need for braces. Good dental health habits, such as brushing a baby’s teeth with water twice a day, must be started as soon as the teeth appear, which means at around six months.
All parents must be mindful that children need to be supervised when brushing their teeth until they are at least seven years old. If you are a parent, this is a seven-year commitment. This is not something that can be left to the child or their nanny. It may be simple but it is too important. Most nannies can be taught effective brushing techniques and the responsibility can be delegated after its importance is reiterated by the parents.
Some nannies would rather the child stays asleep after a long day out rather than wake them up and suffer their crankiness in order to brush their teeth before bed. Or, they might prefer to let a child fall asleep with a bottle. This means that sugar in the milk or juice will remain on the child’s teeth all night.
Schools are trying hard to promote healthy food and explain its importance to overall health, but finally, it is parents that do the grocery shopping, allow children to have soft drinks and snack on sugary food. Public health campaigns and schools must continue to explain the importance of brushing but it is at home that the child must brush his or her teeth, morning and evening.
Fluoridation, or adding fluoride to the water supply, is said to help decrease the rate of tooth decay by 20 to 40 per cent. However, in the UAE the majority of people drink bottled water and therefore the only way to increase fluoride, apart from brushing, is to apply fluoride varnish twice a year, from the age of two. It is quick and easy and offers extra protection against tooth decay. At the moment it is not covered by all insurance companies and is not advertised at clinics.
The health authorities should consider offering fluoride varnish, in partnership with nurseries and schools, to all children. They should also use the twice-yearly meetings with parents to educate them about the importance of dental health.
Research has shown that brushing teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, is very effective. It will save the child and their parents unnecessary pain and anxiety, hours in the dentist office and millions of dirhams in health care. Parents need to pay more attention to their children’s smile than their own.
Reema Marzouq Falah Al Ahbabi is an Emirati social commentator and a Shamsa bint Mohamed fellow of early childhood development, an initiative of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation in collaboration with Yale University