ANN ARBOR—Many pediatricians, dentists and parents believe children should first visit a dentist at age 3, but a University of Michigan researcher says that’s much too late and the delay is causing children unnecessary pain and suffering.

Mike Ignelzi, associate professor of pediatric dentistry at U-M School of Dentistry, will recommend that children visit a dentist at age 1 when he speaks at the American Dental Association’s annual session Oct. 24. Tooth decay starts young.

"Many people mistakenly believe that dental caries is a thing of the past, but the Surgeon General recently concluded that dental caries is the most common chronic disease in children—40 percent of kindergarten children have experienced dental caries," Ignelzi said. "Infants who are of low socioeconomic status, who consume sugary foods, and whose mothers have low education levels are 32 times more likely to have caries at 3 years of age than those children who do not have these risk factors."

Ignelzi has chaired the Council on Scientific Affairs for the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and recently was appointed to a three-year term on the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures Early Childhood Expert Panel, the only dentist on the panel that sets pediatric medical visit guidelines.

Ignelzi said he and many of his pediatric dentist colleagues have had little choice but to take children younger than 3 years old into the operating room to repair and extract bad teeth because toddlers simply do not hold still for lengthy dental procedures. With the risks of putting a small child under general anesthesia, and costs in the thousands of dollars, it would be much easier to prevent many of those problems through earlier dental checkups, Ignelzi said.

"If we spent 20 minutes with the family of every kid who goes to bed with a bottle of milk every night, we could head off a lot of problems," he said.

Recommending a first visit when a child is 1 year old would give dentists the chance to build good dental hygiene habits early. For example, Ignelzi said many parents think they are adequately cleaning baby teeth if they swab their child’s mouth with a washcloth, but they really should use a toothbrush. Many also give their children milk at night, thinking it’s good for teeth and bones, but milk’s sugars rot young teeth.

He added that building a preventive health relationship between a family and a dentist is easier than waiting until the child is in pain or has a playground accident—leaving parents to scramble for a pediatric dentist in a hurry, and making the child’s first dental experience a traumatic one.

Ignelzi understands the existing pressures on parents and pediatricians to meet all of the other early childhood checkup recommendations. But if a dozen doctor’s office visits are seen as valuable building blocks to a child’s healthy development, then earlier dental visits should be, as well.

Related links:

The American Dental Association’s annual conference Details on Ignelzi’s ADA presentation