Sugary drinks to blame for high number of toddler with rotting teeth
Toddlers as young as 18 months are having rotting teeth pulled out, dentists say.
Sophie Beaumont, a dentist at Victoria's public dental hospital, said children were coming in with blackened teeth and pus-filled gums, believed to be caused by sugar drinks and high sugar diets.
Some children’s mouths were so bad that they needed to have all their baby teeth removed in major operations.
"It is very sad because you can imagine the impact on that child when they have to go to school with no teeth and try to function without them. It is quite upsetting," Beaumont said.
"It is not uncommon to be taking out 12 or 14 baby teeth in one go. We would do that quite frequently."
More than 1000 children throughout Victoria needed to be put under general anaesthetic at the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne last year, with most of the operations related to getting decayed teeth removed. Of these, 178 were three or under.
Beaumont said that soft drinks and other drinks high in sugar such as cordials or fruit juices were the main culprit for the rotting teeth.
A three-year-old had 11 teeth extracted, and a two-year-old was often given soft drink, which had dissolved the teeth down to the gum.
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