Sugar comes in various forms! While feasting on sweet treats this coming holidays, watch out for these hidden sugars as well.

Dr Chin Shou King, Director and Dental Surgeon at T32 Junior Dental Centre tells us more.

• Watch out for sweets, sodas, canned fruit, biscuits, cookies, cakes, pastries, fruit juices, dried and preserved fruits. These are the common ‘hidden sugars’ in a child’s diet.
• Try to avoid giving your child sticky chewy sweets like toffees and pastilles that cling on to the pits and fissures of teeth and are hard to brush off.
• Avoid fizzy drinks and sodas like Coke. These drinks lower the pH level in the mouth and create an acidic environment where bacteria can thrive in.
• Although healthy with natural vitamins and anti-oxidants, fruits and fruit juice also contain sugar and if taken excessively can still cause tooth decay.
• Some cereals are sugar coated or contain raisins which also have high sugar content.
• Ideally, all such snacks should be given directly after a meal as the salivary content in the mouth will be high and can dilute the harmful effect of the sugars effectively.
• Avoid giving snacks in between meals when the mouth is very dry and the effects of the sugars are maximized.

Practice address:
One Orchard Boulevard, Camden Medical Centre (17th Floor)
Tel: (65) 6733 1388
Email: t32@t32dental.com
Website: www.t32dental.com

This article was first published in The New Age Parents online magazine

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