Growing Up on Sugar and Screens

During the 1990s, the trinity of Khatamband candies, Khand kulchas, and Campa Cola ruled our childhood snacks and were extremely adored by every growing child, without realizing how highly cariogenic they were for our teeth. The price is being paid by our teeth years later.

However, today’s generation is much better in terms of the availability of resources and the variety of products they cherish, consume, and continue to live with. But the emerging trend of sugars, smartphones, and soft drinks, with their rampant usage, is increasing as a silent epidemic in Kashmir.

It wouldn’t be wrong to assume that this disastrous trio is consumed and available in one form or another and is extremely dangerous for our children, especially during their crucial physical, mental, and social developmental years.

Sugar is a Growing Threat

Sugar consumption has shown a considerable increase over the last decade or so, wherein the newest forms of sugars like processed foods, canned foods, carbonated drinks, fizzy beverages, etc., have become part of habitual eating practices in children. Unsurprisingly, the effects on children—especially on their teeth—have been regressive.

Sharma P et al., in their IJCMR research, pointed out that there is a 25% prevalence of dental caries among 12-year-old school-going children in Jammu and Kashmir—that is roughly one-fourth of our school-going children. This does reflect a looming crisis.

Screen Time Is the New Enemy

What is alarming now is the association of screen time with the potential risk of consuming more cariogenic food, which is essentially a carbohydrate-rich diet. This poses a significantly higher risk of not just:

oral cavities,

decay of teeth,

gum infections, and

early shedding of teeth,

but also grave threats such as:

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,

obesity,

loss of attention, and

worsening of the social and emotional well-being of our children.

Smartphones have become the worst enemies of our children. It is no surprise that our cultural ecosystem and our homes are being taken over by new so-called smartwares. Nun chai, kehwa, and kulcha have been replaced by Lipton tea and pastry; grandparent folklores have been replaced by smartphone nursery rhymes and prolonged screen time; and community games have been replaced by online video games. Such activities hint towards regressive cultural changes that would vitiate the community in the long run, and our children would bear the maximum brunt of these changes.

Another study by Ramesh et al. in JCHR alarmed about the influence of screen time on dietary practices and oral hygiene in preschool children and concluded that increased screen time is associated with higher snacking and lesser brushing in children, which considerably increases their risk of developing potential oral health issues.

Prevention

The old Benjamin Franklin reminder—“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”—still holds more relevance than any other treatment. Instilling consistent habits in our children about better oral hygiene practices, including brushing and eating healthy foods, would work far better than spending thousands later at dental clinics trying to rescue their lost smiles.

Parental negligence regarding screen time usage and its consequences needs to be replaced by more robust awareness, as parents are the first responders to children’s needs, wishes, behaviors, and routines. Kashmir needs to take moral and practical inspiration from Japan’s 80–20 oral health movement, which strongly promotes retaining at least 20 natural teeth by the age of 80.

The learning from Japan’s 80–20 movement was that oral health is a collective responsibility and a part of child education. School dental health programs and Shoku-go no Ha Magaki (daily post-lunch brushing) changed the behavior of children towards better oral care and made it so successful that they now have the highest elderly tooth retention rates in the world.

Needless to mention, the current school curriculum needs to emphasize improving oral health and establish it as a prerequisite for mental and physical health, with society taking the right step forward to normalize cultural cleanliness and self-discipline as part of our children’s lives.

Dr Tahir Ahmad, MDS Oral-Maxillo-facial Surgery