Can Sugar Affect Your Child's Oral Health?

Kids can be picky eaters and demand soft drinks and sugary treats often, but it’s very important to establish healthy eating habits from an early age—not just because of the health effects on their body and growth overall, but because it affects their oral health too! Many parents aren’t aware of how sugar affects baby teeth and what causes cavities.

People usually say that sugar causes tooth decay, but technically, it’s the bacteria that create cavities — not the sugar itself. The bacteria in your mouth love to eat sugar as much as many humans do. After the bacteria consume sugar or another carbohydrate, they create acid. This acid causes tooth decay problems like cavities.

Both adults and children can get cavities from sugar because of this process. When tooth decay becomes severe, a dentist may have to remove the affected tooth. Baby teeth eventually get replaced by permanent teeth, but they need to stay in a child’s mouth until they naturally come out. Your child’s baby teeth keep space open for permanent teeth to emerge. If they lose a tooth too soon, the other baby teeth can move into the open space and prevent the permanent teeth from erupting correctly.