Taipei, Taiwan – At an international forum on paediatric dentistry, experts elaborated on the importance of oral health maintenance while also suggesting that there is more that people can do in their daily lives to prevent tooth decay. Tooth decay is currently one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide.
Organised by the International Association of Paediatric Dentistry (IAPD) and Taiwan Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (TAPD), the IAPD Regional Meeting ran from August 26 to 28.
Main topics at the forum included the modern perspective on the management of cavities, sugar-free gum and the maintenance of oral homeostasis and the prevention of dental trauma. The forum is the first IAPD Regional Meeting to be held in Taiwan.
According to IAPD President Tsai Tzong-Ping, IAPD is the largest international body in the area of paediatric dentistry, with members from more than 64 countries around the world and representing over 15,000 dentists working with children, adolescents and patients with special needs. Its mission is to promote the best practice of paediatric dentistry to the world.
The TAPD joined the association in 1997 at the 16th international Congress of IAPD in Buenos Aires. Tsai is the association’s first ever Taiwanese president. The IAPD Congress is the largest biennial conference on children’s oral health around the globe.
In 2016, the association underwent a monumental shift in terms of its objective, which moved from treating oral diseases to preventing them. It vowed to become the global voice for children’s oral health.
This year’s regional meeting in Taipei aims to promote and enhance professionalism of domestic paediatric dentistry, and to provide citizens with better insight to international trends and clearer understanding of how to maintain oral health.
Veterans in the field were invited to take part in the three-day forum, including Dr. Michael Dodds, senior principal and lead oral health scientist at Wrigley Science & Technology; Prof. Monty Duggal, head of the Child Dental Health Department at Leeds Dental Institute; Dr. Anne C. O’Connel from the Public and Child Dental Health Department of the Trinity College Dublin in Ireland; and TAPD President Lee Yang-chun.
The beginning of dental cavities
In a seminar circulating on the cause, effect and prevention of dental cavities, Tsai began by showcasing the history and spate of which the disease has grown. According to Tsai, more than 75 per cent of the medical treatments that clinics provide are related to tooth decay problems. Dental cavities were a little known problem before sugarcane was introduced to the human diet in 1850.
When sugarcane mixes with streptococcus mutans (MS) – bacteria in the human mouth – it becomes a sticky layer that coats the teeth and keeps plaque acids on them that significantly contribute to tooth decay.
The rate of dental cavities in human teeth skyrocketed from 1850 to 1950. It was finally brought down in 1945 when scientists discovered that fluoride helps remove plaque acid from the teeth.
Concluding on the brief introduction on dental cavities, Tsai said that it is in fact a largely preventable disease and that by chewing sugar-free gum, the plaque acids that cause tooth decay could be significantly removed from the mouth.
Chewing gum provides more than just fresh breath
Speaking on the benefits of chewing sugar-free gums and the maintenance of oral homeostasis, Dr. Dodds followed the discussion by expressing concerns over how dental cavities are still an increasing global health burden. He added that it remains the most common chronic disease across the globe.
Addressing the issue statistically, he said that 35 per cent of the world’s population have at least one decaying tooth in their mouths. Moreover, there are dental cavities found in 60 to 90 per cent school children, and in people aged 65 to 74 years old worldwide, almost 30 per cent have no natural teeth.
According to Dr. Dodds, the causes of oral diseases are multifaceted, ranging from factors inside the mouth including bacterial composition, saliva’s ability to buffer, genetic heritage and hormones, and to one’s diet and frequency of eating.
Introducing the role sugar-free gum plays in terms of dental cavity prevention, Dr. Dodds started with explaining how saliva works in oral health. He called saliva as a “magic fluid” that helps maintain the balance between demineralisation and remineralisation in the mouth. Chewing sugar-free gum stimulates saliva to flow over ten times the resting rate, he said.
Stimulated saliva helps remove food debris from susceptible tooth surfaces, is effective for remineralising damaged enamel, and encourages the remineralisation of early cavities.
Overall, the benefits of sugar-free gum include cleaning mouth of food debris and sugars, neutralising acids, supporting remineralisation, longer-term ecological effects.
While the effect of sugar-free gum on the prevention of dental cavities has been established for some time, Dr. Dodds said that it also has a very significant role in relaxing the constraints placed on healthcare budgets.
Dr. Dodds introduced an exciting research published in the British Dental Journal in February. Conducted by York University and Plymouth University with support from the Wrigley Company Foundation, the research aimed to demonstrate the potential cost savings in dental care associated with increased levels of sugar-free gum usage. Results revealed that chewing sugar-free gum after eating and drinking could help reduce the risk of tooth decay.
Hypothetically speaking, the report said that if all members of the 12-year-old population in the UK chew sugar-free gum twice a day, it could save the country as much as 3.3 million pounds (approximately NT$140 million) within a year.
According to the research, the costs of tooth restoration, tooth extraction in primary care settings and under general anaesthetic were considered. The effects of cavity reduction on these costs were calculated.
Dr. Dodds explained how much money on dental healthcare Taiwanese could potentially save according to a study that stretched the scope of the previous research to the entire world population. This study was conducted very recently and is looking for publication in the following months, he said. According to the study, Taiwan’s could save up to US$282 million (approximately NT$89 million) a year if every citizen chews three pieces of sugar-free gum per day.