I have not been able to obtain a copy of the article about weaning at one
year so I cannot make a comment on that article, but I did talk with a
Pedodontist at a local children's hospital that has a dental clinic.  I hope
you are sitting down while reading this - they do a MINIMUM of TEN "bottle
mouth syndrome" cases PER WEEK.  That is a shocker isn't it!

Following up the conversation, he stated that he thought only one case in the
last 8 months may have been associated with breastfeeding.  He felt that had
been a co-sleeping situation.  He felt some of the cases may have even had
fluorosis (to much fluoride) and the children still had decay.

Decay should not be as challenging as it appears.  This applies to babies,
teens, adults, and senior citizens alike:-  Decay is directly related to the
amount of "CONTACT TIME" a sugary substance is in contact with the teeth.
 The key is "CONTACT TIME"!!!!!!!

As an example:  I rarely see new decay in long term patients in my practice.
 Most of the restorative procedures I do are on new patients, and on long
term patients whose old large fillings break down or fracture due to
clenching and bruxing or eating popcorn and things like that.  However, in
the last 2 weeks I have seen 2 patients who really surprised me with the
amount of new decay they had.  In discussing their situations, I found out
that one was sipping only 2 soda pops, but sipping them all day long.  The
other was drinking several soda pop all day long.  The key in both cases was
not the amount of sugar (some soda has 9 - 10 tsp of sugar PER can), but the
amount of "CONTACT TIME' of the sugar to the teeth.  As an example ONLY (I do
not recommend this), but it would probably be less damaging to drink a 6 pack
of soda pop at each meal - then go brush and floss your teeth - than it would
be to sip on only 2 or 3 soda pops ALL day long.  Do YOU sip on coffee with
sugar in it all day long - if so - you are a candidate for decay!

The current theory is that it take about 24 hours for colonies of bacteria to
organize themselves to cause damage to the teeth.  If this is the case, then
if you THOROUGHLY clean your teeth once a day (I would also recommend
decreasing sugar consumption as well), you should not get decay.

Happy brushing AND flossing!             Brian Palmer D.D.S.
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