Did You Know That Cavities Are The Most Common Chronic Disease affecting Children In the US?

Cavities ( also known as caries) are 7 times more common than hay fever and 5 times more common than asthma.

Kids lose an estimate of 51 million school hours per year due to caries and its complications. Statistics show that 30% ( one out of every three kids!) of Illinois children age 3 to 6 years old have experience caries.

Some of the risk factors for development of caries are:

1. Frequent snacking, juice, milk or sweetened beverage ingestion.
2. Poor oral health in parents or primary care giver (babysitters, grandparents, etc).
3. Overwhelmed caregivers.
4. Family history of caries.

Kissing babies in the mouth, sharing food, sharing drinks, or “cleaning” the pacifier by putting it in your mouth can transmit oral bacterias that can cause cavities in your baby!

It is now recommended that between the age of 12 to 18 months, babies should visit a pediatric dentist. If risk factors are identified by the pediatrician, the referral to the dentist should be done earlier; sometimes as early as 6 months after the eruption of the first tooth!

Written by - Joanna E. Betancourt MD., FAAP

Photo credit: Monroe's Dragonfly

Thoughts on Vaccinations

 The recent pertussis epidemic in California has brought back the vaccine debate to the table. Consequently, I was asked how I felt about vaccines by a patient on our Facebook page. Although I address all the scientific evidence as to why immunizing your children is important during my clinic, I wanted to share a more personal and less “clinical” approach about this topic that I often don’t get the chance to always address during an office visit.

As a mom of 3 young children, I too encountered doubts when it came to decide whether to immunize my children or not. My oldest is 11 and my youngest is 4; so my children were born during the years that the vaccine controversy and their possible link with autism was at its height.

During those years, I was also became a pediatrician. During my residency I saw many families suffer as a result of their children die from vaccine preventable diseases.

In my professional life, I’ve also experienced first hand babies who later in life have been diagnosed with autism and I’ve seen the pain and suffering those parents and children have to endure.

I’ve reviewed the literature and found there is no scientific evidence that links vaccines and autism. And there are a wealth of scientific studies that have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism.

My findings were recently confirmed in JAMA,

My findings were recently confirmed as JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), the publishing journal for the article that started the controversy publicly retracted the aticle as they also confirmed the study was not reliable. A British medical panel concluded that Dr. whom spearheaded the study had been dishonest, violated basic research ethics rules and showed a “callous disregard” for the suffering of children involved in his research according to the New York Time article.

The doctor that conducted the research has since had his licensed revoked.

I fully immunized my children as infants, because I believe vaccines can save lives. I could not take the risk of losing one of my babies to an illness that is preventable... I could not live with the feeling of guilt... to me the benefit of the vaccines out weight by far the unconfirmed, alleged, non-scientific data that suggest vaccines cause autism.

That is my advice to my patients. I respect the opinion of parents who refuse vaccinations for their children. And hope they never have to go through the path those parents in California are going through right now.

Here are more links to the retracted study.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/02/lancet.retraction.autism/index.html

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/02/02/autism-mmr-lancet-wakefield.html  

Written by - Joanna E. Betancourt MD., FAAP