Researcher to ADA: Get kids to dentist at age 1

Many pediatricians, dentists and parents believe children first should visit a dentist at age 3, but a U-M researcher says that's much too late and the delay is causing children unnecessary pain and suffering.

Dr. Mike Ignelzi, associate professor of pediatric dentistry at the School of Dentistry, will recommend that children visit a dentist at age 1 when he speaks at the American Dental Association's (ADA) annual session Oct. 24.

Tooth decay starts young, he says. "Many people mistakenly believe that dental caries [tooth decay] is a thing of the past, but the surgeon general recently concluded that dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children—40 percent of kindergarten children have experienced dental caries," Ignelzi says. "Infants who are of low socioeconomic status, who consume sugary foods, and whose mothers have low education levels are 32 times more likely to have caries at 3 years of age than those children who do not have these risk factors."

Ignelzi has chaired the Council on Scientific Affairs for the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and recently was appointed to a three-year term on the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures Early Childhood Expert Panel, the only dentist on the panel that sets pediatric medical visit guidelines.

"If we spent 20 minutes with the family of every kid who goes to bed with a bottle of milk every night, we could head off a lot of problems." –Dr. Mike Ignelzi

Ignelzi says he and many of his pediatric dentist colleagues have had little choice but to take children younger than 3 years old into the operating room to repair and extract bad teeth because toddlers simply do not hold still for lengthy dental procedures. With the risks of putting a small child under general anesthesia, and costs in the thousands of dollars, it would be much easier to prevent many of those problems through earlier dental checkups, Ignelzi says.

Recommending a first visit when a child is 1 year old would give dentists the chance to build good dental hygiene habits early, he says. For example, Ignelzi says many parents think they are adequately cleaning baby teeth if they swab their child's mouth with a washcloth, but they really should use a toothbrush. Many also give their children milk at night, thinking it's good for teeth and bones, but milk's sugars rot young teeth.

"If we spent 20 minutes with the family of every kid who goes to bed with a bottle of milk every night, we could head off a lot of problems," he says.

He adds that building a preventive health relationship between a family and a dentist is easier than waiting until the child is in pain or has a playground accident—leaving parents to scramble for a pediatric dentist in a hurry, and making the child's first dental experience a traumatic one.

Ignelzi understands the existing pressures on parents and pediatricians to meet all of the other early childhood checkup recommendations. But if a dozen doctor's office visits are seen as valuable building blocks to a child's healthy development, then earlier dental visits should be as well, he says.

For details on Ignelzi's ADA presentation, visit http://www.ada.org/prof/events/session/sessiondetail.asp?sessionID=256P.

More Stories

• Scientists find genetic 'fountain of youth' for adult stem cells
• Applications, enrollment set new record
• U-M selects architect for major UMMA expansion
• Regents approve expansion of U-M-D engineering facilities
• Tech transfer activity continues to rise
• Dana Building gets green light
• Index indicates pool of women executive talent barely tapped
• Fannie Mae president proud to come from U-M
• LSI challenging the norm
• IT Commons encourages cooperation
• Mott to add operating room and MRI to meet surging patient needs
• Raise a glass
• Endowment rebounds, investments up overall in 2003
• Is it okay to buy prescription drugs in other countries?
• A heartburn pill a day may keep ulcers away
• Fact and fiction, together at U-M Press
• Information age set to collide with right to privacy issues
• Staff spotlight
• Researcher to ADA: Get kids to dentist at age 1
• Don't miss