As parents, we’re hardwired to want to provide our kids with a better start at life than we received. After all, that’s how humanity moves forward dental instruments. So when we turn our attention to helping our kids have a better start with their oral health, opinions vary widely. Is fluoride safe to use? What about sealants? What should I do about my teen’s wisdom teeth turbine air compressor? The questions seem endless. That’s why we love doing what we do… Researching the subjects you want to learn more about and sharing our findings. So, with this pass on how to raise cavity-free kids, we hope you find a gem or two that help you navigate this path for your family… Cavities become the norm when the right (wrong) combination of circumstances come together Here are the main components that allow tooth decay to become the norm: 1. The presence of the right ‘bugs’ in the child’s mouth 2. The diet and lifestyle factors that allow these bugs to dominate the child’s oral micro biome At the end of this article, we’ll put forth a few actions each of us can apply to help our kids get moving in the cavity-free direction… How much of the ‘kids cavity issue’ is from decay causing bacteria? Let’s get this straight, for tooth decay to occur, certain bacterial strains must be present and allowed to grow and colonize the mouth. We have lost count of the number of customers who have told us, “My teeth were great until I got married.” In other words, via kissing, one spouse introduced the bugs implicated with decay to the other. In the case of children, the main ‘vectors of contamination’ are us, the parents. Unless we have our systems optimized to where the bugs implicated with tooth decay aren’t an issue for us, it’s almost guaranteed that we will pass them to our children. This is why we aren’t fans of parents putting a pacifier in their mouth before giving it to the child. Yes, there is the argument that we are inoculating the beneficial microbes into the child’s mouth too, but in this case, we feel the risks outweigh the benefits unless the parent is free from tooth decay and gum disease. Incidentally, when it comes to the bugs associated with gum disease, dogs are a very common carrier. Please never let a family dog lick a child in the mouth. Aside from the obvious (ahem, where else do dogs put their tongues?), allowing your child to be licked in the mouth by a dog is an easy way to pass these gum disease bugs to a young child. Bottom line, if we aren’t exposed to the various strains of oral bacteria implicated with tooth decay (and gum disease for that matter), we really can’t develop these issues dental scaling machine. However (and it’s a big however), to quote one of our favorite experts on the subject, Dr Ralph Steinman, author of Dentinal Fluid Transport, “To produce caries (cavities), more than the presence of bacteria is necessary: an important factor is host resistance, which is effected by nutrition.” (pg 34 Dentinal Fluid Transport) So, we can have ‘the presence of bacteria’ in the mouth, but if our host resistance (our innate immune response) is strong/robust enough, the bacteria implicated with tooth decay won’t be able to proliferate to the numbers necessary for decay to be the norm.