ADA NSW members do an outstanding job of helping us to promote important oral health issues. This article, featuring member and oral health advocate Dr Mohit Tolani, highlights the importance of childhood oral health.
ADA NSW is always looking for members to speak to local, state and national media outlets. If you’d like to get involved, email communications@adansw.com.au.
Wednesday 18 January 2023
Dapto dentist Dr Mohit Tolani is seeing an explosion in tooth cavities.
An Illawarra dentist says COVID-19 lockdowns and a lack of “dental literacy” are to blame for an explosion in tooth cavities in children in the Illawarra.
More than half the children who visit his Illawarra dental practice have cavities in their adult teeth – double the state average.
And he warns children face long-term dental, health and even developmental problems if tooth cavities are left untreated.
Dr Mohit Tolani works at Dapto Dentists and is a member of the Australian Dental Association (ADA) NSW Branch.
The ADA NSW said Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data for 2022 showed one in four Australian children aged 6-14, or 24 per cent, had dental cavities in their permanent teeth.
But Dr Tolani said anecdotal evidence showed his figure was much higher in the Illawarra. “Definitely in the Illawarra we are seeing much higher rates of tooth decay in children,” he said. “More than half the children I see will have cavities in their permanent teeth”.
He blamed a “lack of awareness” of many parents about how to manage their child’s dental hygiene.
He said successive COVID-19 lockdowns, during which only emergency dental procedures and not regular check-ups were allowed, had also contributed to the explosion in cavities he was seeing now.
“What I am seeing after two years of COVID is that parents have missed two years of their children’s oral health,” he said.
“Those children have not been having regular check-ups and their parents maybe have not known what is normal and what is not in regards to tooth development, and there is just an overall lack of dental literacy.”
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