A SMALL piece of cheese eaten before sweets or cakes can help protect your teeth against sugar for an hour. A simple trick that Haworth dentist Tony Kilcoyne has been telling his patients about for decades.

Dr Kilcoyne is very passionate about improving the dental health of children in Bradford – particularly in the light of recent surveys which show the shocking state of tooth decay in young Bradfordians.

Tooth decay can be found in 46 per cent of five-year-olds in the district, according to the latest statistics – and now the first survey of three-year-olds shows that 17 per cent in Bradford have decayed, missing or filled teeth.

Dr Kilcoyne, who runs his own private practice and also teaches dental students, warns that these problems are 100 per cent preventable – it’s about the right education and a few useful tips – such as his cheese trick.

“In my practice, I’ve been using the Scandinavian prevention system for over 20 years,” he explained.” And what that says is, from birth you get the kids and their parents in and tell them about good diet and about how to clean their teeth right from when the first ones come through. In Scandinavia, they can get children into adulthood with on average less than one filling per child. It pays dividends.

“But the problem is, some of these children are coming to us and the damage is already done. So when people are coming to the dentist, in my mind they should have already heard three or four of these health messages.

“You are never going to stop a child having cakes, sweets, chocolates – that’s not the point. But what you can do is teach them safer ways to do so. Wouldn’t it be great if we could even prevent half of this – it’s actually 100 per cent preventable – but what a brilliant five-year target to reduce decay in children in Bradford by 50 per cent.

“Let’s tell the public good health messages and clever strategies to reduce the negative effects of many sugar attacks a day on children’s teeth. Dental services need to be empowered to be more prevention-orientated. At the moment, it’s very much all hands on deck, fire-fighting, so much decay coming through the doors. And of course when people are in pain, they are not always going to receive the advice well. That’s not the best time to be hearing these messages for the first time – such as brushing your teeth, having less sugar attacks, eating more fruit and veg, and not snacking on sweet things between meals.”

“People deserve to be empowered with the knowledge to prevent most of these problems, and I think most people would choose to do it.

“You can’t stop kids at a birthday celebration or Christmas – no parent is going to be able to say you can’t have any sugary things, but what you can say is – okay this is a special one-off event, have a piece of cheese first then you can have the sugary things.

“It creates a non-stick surface on the teeth, a little force field round the teeth, and it will protect them for an hour.”

It is also about creating good patterns, he believes, such as not having constant sugar attacks throughout the day. If you must have something sweet have it with a meal, and eat savoury things between meals instead.

Dr Kilcoyne feels so strongly about the issue, that he confronted councillors about the state of children’s teeth at a recent Bradford Council meeting. They were discussing dental health services in the district and heard that £33 million is spent a year on dental care, yet more could be done to educate families about the importance of dental hygiene in young children.

Further adding to the debate, a report from toothpaste giant Colgate shows that despite wanting the best for their kids’ oral health, many UK parents may be passing on inadequate routines to their children. They found that 23 per cent of parents admit their children clean their teeth just once a day or sometimes not at all, while 35 per cent believe that getting a cavity happens to all children, 59 per cent do not know that cavities are preventable, and only 26 per cent believe that the major cause of tooth decay is sugary foods.

Knowledge is the key, believes Dr Kilcoyne.