Except for water, virtually everything that you consume has sugar in it!
It seems that the number of kids getting cavities and tooth decay are INCREASINGdespite the parents’ best efforts to eliminate sugar from their daily consumption. Even healthy food like fruits and vegetables can lead to cavities due to sugar acids!
According to Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB), the average Singaporean consumes 20kgs of sugar each year. This is twice more than the recommended annual intake (9kgs) by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Sugar acids are created in the mouth when common oral bacteria feed on food residue, causing the acid level in the mouth to rise and enabling sugar acids to attack, therefore weakening tooth enamel and causing cavities. What does that mean to parents?
Dr Ng Jing Jing, a specialist in Children’s Dentistry from The Oral Care Centre explains that as parents, try to encourage our kids to concentrate on their meals and finish in under 30 minutes (less if possible) as bacteria will start to feed on the food in their mouths, thereby increasing chances of cavities. She also advises parents NOT to allow their babies to nurse to sleep, fall asleep while feeding on milk bottles or drink honey-water. For more tips on tips by Dr. Ng Jing Jing on oral health for kids, click here.
So if everything we consume has sugar, what is the point of brushing our teeth diligently?
The Good News is that the leading oral care company, Colgate has launched a new product in town that claims to neutralize the sugar acid in your mouth! The Colgate Maximum Cavity Protection with Sugar Acid Neutralizer is the first and only family anti-cavity toothpaste that goes beyond the protection of fluoride that directly fights sugar acids in plaque — the number one cause of cavities.
Jeffrey Ngfrom Colgate was excited to share how theColgate SAN (Sugar Acid Neutralizer) Toothpaste fight tooth decay:
Firstly, its patented Sugar Acid Neutralizer helps deactivate sugar acids before they can harm teeth. Secondly, with fluoride and calcium, it also strengthens and restores the enamel that help prevent cavity formation.
We tested the toothpaste and found it similar in texture and foamy-ness as the other Colgate brands. Even though it said cool mint on the tube, the toothpaste was palatable for my tween-age son, but I prefer the minty-er kind. So, we are going to let him use it and will monitor for any better results.
To complement the launch, the company collaborated with The Expat Kitchen to teach the kids how to bake a delicious pasta and put together a platter of fruit skewers to encourage healthy eating. Here is a quick photo montage of my daughter putting together her ingredients for her pasta dish and skewering her fruits for the platter.
That is Bhakti Majumdar, the marketing representative from Cohn& Wolfetaking photographs of the session. My daughter struck a friendship with her and even made a small cup of pasta for Bhakti.
I caught my heart in my throat watching her use the knife to cut the fruits. *GASP* Watch the fingers!! But watching her delicately cut the fruits and skewered them together with the focus and diligence of a young apprentice, I was hopeful: “could I have a Junior Master Chef in the making?” Hmmmmm…. a mother can hope, can’t she?
It was an enlightening session. Kyana and I had a lovely mother-daughter session and we are more committed to keeping our teeth pearly white!
This session was made possible courtesy of Colgate-Palmolive Company. Thank you for the invitation.
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