Nigel Carter urges healthy eating for teeth
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- Published: Thursday, 16 August 2012 16:16
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| A new survey, for the British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF), has looked into some of the nation's oral health habits. It has revealed that many do not take their oral health into consideration when eating and drinking. BDHF Chief Executive, Dr Nigel Carter, says a healthy eating mind-set should be top of everybody's shopping list if oral health in the UK is to improve. |
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The findings show that more than one in three people (39 per cent) admit they give little thought to their oral health and it plays hardly any relevance in their diet, while one in six (17 per cent) said they eat and drink what they want, regardless of the effect it may have on either their mouth or teeth.
Results also found that more than one in four people (28 per cent) are aware of the foods that are bad for their teeth but ignore it. Only one in six (16 per cent) of the people who were questioned in the survey avoid foods that are bad for their teeth, with men twice as likely to ignore their oral health when it comes to diet and food consumption as women.
Recent Government statistics have shown more than four-fifths of the population have at least one filling while one in twenty (six per cent) have no natural teeth at all. Almost one in three (31 per cent) of adults have tooth decay and three in every ten adults suffer from regular dental pain.
Dr Carter added: "The UK in general has developed a very unhealthy food environment, making it even harder for us to improve dietary habits. Reducing the amount of snacking and grazing in between meals can create a swift improvement in oral health while decreasing the amount of preventable dental treatment that is carried out every year.
"In the UK, a third of children age five and age 12 have decayed teeth. There is an increasing need for stricter measures to be put in place so that children's health does not deteriorate further. Sweets are sugary foods have become the norm, this gives us an insight into why children's dental health in the UK is so poor."
The survey, conducted by the Foundation as part of National Smile Month, a campaign which aims to improve the state of oral health in the UK, questioned more than 1,000 people in order to understand some of their oral health knowledge and habits.
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