Organic fruit juices too can harm baby teeth

21 August, 2007:

The so-called healthy fruit juices can damage children’s teeth, a dentists’ group in the United Kingdom has warned.

Organic juices which combine sugar and fruit are the worst culprits that erode teeth.

Half of the parents in the United Kingdom are unaware that organic fruit juices can contain as much sugar as some fizzy drinks, a survey by YouGov has revealed.

Dr Philip Stemmer, a dentist at Teeth For Life, advises parents to restrict children to one glass of fruit juice or full-sugar cordial a day.

Dental erosion caused by acidic fruit juices and squashes, he says, affects the whole surface of a tooth. Exposure daily will cause a progressive loss of enamel with the effect that the teeth ‘shrink’ and crumble at the biting edge. Even diet drinks, which have no sugar, are very acidic and can dissolve tooth enamel.

While mothers and fathers think they are doing the best to their children by giving them ‘healthier’ drinks, the acid in these drinks are wearing away the
enamel, Dr Stemmer adds.

His advice to parents is to combine acidic drinks with meal times and give the child a straw to drink soft drinks through. Parents should also supervise
teeth brushing to ensure that it is thorough and use a toothpaste which contains fluoride.

Besides, the children must wait at least 30 minutes after drinking sugary or acidic drinks to brush because the teeth will have been softened by the
sugar and “you will brush away the tooth itself.”

According to Dr Gordon Watkins, member of the British Dental Association’s health and science committee, fruit juices are generally acidic and contain a considerable amount of sugar. The safest drinks are water and milk. If a child must be given fruit juice, it has to be diluted well with water.

Dr Watkins says that dried fruit too are bad for teeth. So many parents, he adds, buy these healthy snacks of dried fruit but drying it concentrates the
sugar “so much so that it is almost like giving your child a jelly bean.” Dried fruits, like everything else, must be eaten in moderation and it is better to eat them as part of a meal rather than as a snack.

The recent research conducted by YouGov found that 34% of Britain’s 10,513,700 children aged 4-17 drink at least two or three glasses of squash or cordial a day in winter. This could increase to an average of 8 or 9 glasses a day during the summer months.

Of the parents interviewed for the survey, over a quarter said their children drink absolutely no milk in their daily consumption of 10 beverages a day.

Milk, say the dentists, is essential for the formation of strong teeth and bones and guards against osteoporosis and one glass of milk contains a child’s entire calcium requirement.