Dental Care: Study finds a strong link between television viewing & dental caries among children
Are you worried about dental caries or decay in your tiny tots? Parents perhaps need to keep a check on television viewing duration of the children. A study conducted by a post graduate student of Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry at College of Dental Sciences & Research Center, Gujarat University has found a strong link between television viewing and dental caries among children.
Dr Vaibhav Kotecha, who hails from Rajkot undertook a study on 500 children as part of his final year project but he finalized his sample with 115 students that included 69 boys and 46 girls. Out of the 115, 11 never watched television. Out of 69 children, 42 children had caries who snacked once in front of TV and 25 children had caries who snacked twice in front of TV. On weekends, 51 children watched TV for 1-3 hours and 4 children watched TV for more than 3 hours.
Said Vaibhav, "The time spent on television viewing has been implicated as a possible risk factor for developing dental caries as they are more likely to consume more sweetened beverages and snacks while viewing TV. In the study, out of 104 children, 61.53% children took snacks in front of TV. While this is a small sample to prove, but a significant correlation between duration and frequency of television viewing and dental caries was seen."
Interestingly, the study also mentioned that about 50% of advertisements on children's favourite channels were for cariogenic food and drinks. Among them, most advertisements were for chocolates and soft drinks. Fruit, vegetables, protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, poultry, beans, nuts, eggs, and dairy products were rarely advertised, whereas foods rich in fats and sweets were advertised frequently, with candy being the most commonly advertised food.
The study recommends healthcare professionals to continue supporting the guidelines laid by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that focusses on education parents regarding appropriate usage of television.
Need to create artificial scarcity for children: Experts
Former President of Academy of Pediatrics in Gujarat and a practicing pediatrician Dr Nishchal Bhatt said, "While there is no direct correlation between children watching television and dental caries, there is some connection with food in the present scenario.
These days, to make a child eat, mothers lure him/her with screen time that can include TV or a tablet. The child who should ideally finish the meal in 20-25 minutes now spends an hour eating, and often does not chew, but keeps the food in the mouth while watching TV."
Moreover, no longer a child derives happiness or fulfilment from the food, it has only become a mean to make parents happy while bargaining what the child wants.
He added, "In earlier days, when there were more children in the family, there never used to be abundance of food. So the child would eat on time, so that the food does not get over by the siblings. Probem is with abundance too.
These days parents run behind the child to make them eat. Parents need to create artificial scarcity, not just of food but also for water, electricity, so that the child becomes adaptive."
Findings
- Out of the 115, 11 never watched television. Out of 69 children, 42 children had caries who snacked once in front of TV and 25 children had caries who snacked twice in front of TV.
- On weekends, 51 children watched TV for 1-3 hours and 4 children watched TV for more than three hours.
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