Diet analysis
At Hillside Dental Surgery, our dentists will begin with the diet analysis of women who are pregnant to ensure that their diet includes the proteins, vitamins, calcium and phosphorus needed for the development of healthy tooth buds for their growing baby. Once the baby is being bottle fed, then our dentists can provide advice on how to prevent the harmful effects of caries. Thus, from the age of six months, the child may begin using a training cup instead of a bottle, limiting the time that the teeth are in contact with liquids. Nutritional instruction should continue after the teeth appear in order to promote good eating habits. By helping parents to choose the best foods for their children and to share with them the knowledge they need to maintain dental health will help avoid a build-up of plaque which in turn can have significant benefits.
If children become accustomed to healthy eating right from the start, they will be less likely to lose their baby teeth prematurely and ultimately less susceptible to caries in adolescence.
In cases of chronic or debilitating illnesses or malnutrition, often seen in older people, it is even more crucial that we play our part, along with other health professionals, in adopting a nutritional approach to their patients.
When a patient visits our dentists for the first time, a nutritional analysis will give your dentist a fuller picture of the patient’s oral health and help in assessing the likelihood of successful treatment. Such an analysis may also reveal eating habits that do not appear to be damaging the masticatory system in the short term but may be harmful to the patient’s general health.