A new survey has revealed that almost a third of parents in Scotland feel that it is ‘acceptable’ for a child to have some level of tooth decay before they reach adolescence. According to the research, which was carried out by dental payment plan specialists Denplan, 32% of parents in Scotland did not see a serious problem with their children developing tooth decay before they were teenagers.
Around 40% of respondents admitted that the reason they felt this way was because they struggled to help their children clean their teeth effectively on a daily basis. The company suggested that, whilst some people can blame regular tooth decay on genetic traits, most find that a family history of poor oral history is the real cause of changing attitudes to dental decay.
About a third of those asked admitted that they were not controlling their child’s sugar intake very well, whilst ten percent said they were not to blame for tooth decay arising, citing family history of the condition as the real problem. The government recently announced that a sugar tax will come into play by 2018, which should hopefully curb the amount of sugar that children are exposed to and reduce instances of tooth decay.