Dental Disappointment

Here’s a fact that won’t leave you smiling:  Just one in five kids sees their dentist every year.  One in five!

Is your child one of them?

I sure hope not, because irregular visits to the dentist is a great way to increase their risk for gum disease, which is second only to the common cold in its prevalence as an infectious disease.

More on how you can naturally treat gum disease in a moment, but I first want to get to the failing facts of the survey.  Because if the survey is accurate, kids not seeing their dentist may be the fault of poor governance, not necessarily poor parenting.

Pew Charitable Trusts, the organization that performed the survey, assessed states’ “tooth-friendliness” by checking to see if they fulfilled eight different criteria.  The criteria included things like whether or not kids had access to fluoridated water, whether states provided Medicaid reimbursements for dentists, the extent to which dental offices cared for children enrolled through Medicaid, and whether or not schools had sealant programs for kids who needed it.

In what can only be described as a profound disappointment, only six states received “A” grades from Pew:  New Mexico, Iowa, South Carolina, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island.  These six were the only states that sufficiently satisfied Pew’s eight criteria.

The overwhelming majority of states—36—received a C.  Those states satisfied four of the eight criteria.

What really hurt was that more states received “F’s” than “A’s”:  Wyoming, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia all flunked (two or fewer criteria met).

This is really bad news for kids’ dental health in the short term, but especially the long term.  It’s in a child’s youth that they learn the importance of regular dental check-ups, and besides flossing and brushing regularly (at least twice a day), their best defense from tooth decay and gum disease is to visit with their dentist regularly (at least once a year).

The other reason why this is bad news is because gum disease affects 75 percent of Americans over the age of 35.  And with 80 percent of kids not making their annual visit, dollars to doughnuts the rate of gum disease will climb as our younger generation grows older.

If you live in one of the failing or middling states, contact your state representative and give them an ear full (respectfully, of course) for why your state is falling down on the dental front.

In the meantime, there are supplements you can take to help treat acute symptoms of gum disease.  These include coenzyme Q10, as it helps heal gum tissue by enhancing gum cell re-growth; vitamin C, as it helps promote healing from bleeding gums (a tell-tale sign of gum disease), and vitamin E.  Similar to vitamin C, vitamin E helps promote wound healing.

For chronic problems, schedule a visit with your periodontist immediately.

Sources
Balch, Phyllis A. “Prescription for Nutritional Healing.” 4th Edition. 2006. Avery: New York
usatoday.com
pewcenteronthestates.org