Preventing Caries Through Diet

By Donald L. Chi, DDS, PhD, Angela Kim

Dental caries is the most common childhood disease.¹ Early childhood caries (ECC) affects children younger than 6 and is defined as one or more decayed, missing, or filled surface (DMFS) on any primary tooth.² Among children younger than 3, any smooth surface caries is classified as severe early childhood caries (S-ECC). S-ECC is defined as a DMFS score of ?4 for children age 3; ?5 for children age 4; and ?6 for children age 5.² When untreated, ECC and S-ECC can lead to pain, infection, tooth loss, hospitalization, and greater likelihood of caries in the permanent teeth, which contributes to increased dental treatment costs, school absences, and decreased quality of life.³

* References can be found in the original article via the link below.
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