My biggest piece of advice is this: Do not allow or at least minimize the amount of soda, diet soda, sports-energy drinks and fruit juices you allow your children to have. This is particularly so with teenagers. With all of soda “hype” and advertising geared toward kids these days, there’s been a significant increase in the number and frequency of cavities in kids of all ages. Advertisers have been successful in their marketing and the results have been devastating. Kids are getting so many more cavities, and much, much earlier. This has had a huge ripple-effect in many areas of health, not just teeth, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and more.

Dental work is not an exact science, Things wear out, break down, stop working and need to be replaced eventually. At some point, teeth can no longer be filled and fixed. After multiple fillings or other procedures, there sometimes just isn’t enough tooth left to work with. With so much soda exposure (diet and regular), teeth are being filled much earlier in our children.

This increases the rate at which this “dental fatigue” occurs, leading to earlier and more abundant tooth loss. Because of the way in which sodas and all of these new sugary drinks work, they almost always cause cavities in multiples. Rather than a single cavity in few years, kids now come in with 10 or more at one time before they are even 18 years old. This can be very traumatic to the child, very expensive for the parents and result in continual dental problems throughout the child’s life.

So I hope that my message was loud and clear and that you will take it very seriously. Even if your child is not a soda-drinker or a sweets-lover, they may still be prone to getting cavities for other reasons such as poor hygiene or even a family history. There are other things you can do to help prevent tooth decay which are discussed in the “General Information” category.

There are various aids to help fend off cavities caused by dry mouth, including anti-cavity rinses, prescription toothpastes and more (discussed in the general questions section). There are also several over-the-counter items that can be used to help stimulate saliva flow and moisten a dry mouth, such as Biotene brand products (sold in pharmacy area of most grocery stores). Chewing sugar-free gum is also a great way to increase saliva flow and helps with the effects of dry mouth syndrome.

If your child suffers from a dry mouth, have them drink water throughout the day. Do not allow them to sip on soda, diet soda or fruit juice, or you will likely see cavities very quickly. A dry mouth alone can increase the rate of getting cavities significantly, as saliva contains many anti-cavity substances. So, once you add sugars to the mix, it is a recipe for disaster!

The only other significant effect that steroid inhalers can have on the mouth is increasing the risk of getting oral yeast infections. You may have also heard it called “thrush” or “candidiasis.” “Thrush” is a condition caused by the overgrowth of a normal bodily fungus called, “Candida Albicans.” This fungus is normally present, but occasionally (especially while taking antibiotics or steroid-containing medicines) can grow in more abundance than usual. Thrush is very frequently seen in babies during the bottle or nursing stage, but less often with inhaler use It can range in severity but looks like “curdled milk” in the mouth that won’t wipe off. If it caused by an inhaler, it is usually seen on the roof of the mouth and throat.

It doesn’t usually hurt anything but can cause irritation or burning to the oral cavity and look unsightly. However, you don’t want to leave it untreated, as it is possible for the fungus to infect the blood or other areas of the body. This is rare but should be mentioned, as to avoid a potentially life threatening situation.

Both children and adults can get candidiasis, but adults typically get it in others areas of the body and is experienced much more by women. The best way to avoid both “thrush” and dry mouth from inhaler use is to rinse the mouth out with water out after each use. This is true for both children and adults who use steroid inhalers. There are medications to treat oral yeast overgrowth and they are usually very simple and work very well. Again, if you see any white areas in your child’s mouth anywhere, always consult your dentist or pediatrician, as it could be caused by other more serious things.