Community

Eating sweets need NOT damage your teeth

Published

9 years ago

February 17, 2015

IF YOU need a filling at the dentist how many times have you heard the message ‘you must stop eating sweets and sugar’? Really, in this day and age with

Dr Mark Boulcott: Explaining dental disease to a patient.

sugar being added or included in almost all foods as not only a sweetener but as a preservative, texture modifier, fermentation substrate, flavouring and colouring agent, bulking agent and emulsifier, is it even possible to comply with this message and not starve?

It is no surprise, therefore that the statistics of decayed teeth in Pembrokeshire as regularly reviewed by the Hywel Dda Health Board Oral Health Profile (last published in 2013) shows an appalling incidence of dental decay in 5 year olds – and yet dental decay is a totally preventable disease!

So what in reality can you and your children eat and be reassured that your teeth will remain decay free? The answer is that there are really no safe foods. The food industry confuses us with statement like ‘no added sugar’, ‘contains natural sugars’ or ‘reduced sugar’. Sucrose, Glucose, Maltose, Fructose (as labeled on many foodstuffs) are all naturally occurring sugars and all, when eaten, cause acid to form in the mouth: The cause of dental decay with the acid ‘dissolving’ teeth. What is less obvious is the amount of sugar contained within the product.

In essence, sugar is sugar: They all cause dental decay no matter how much or how little you eat. One teaspoon of sugar (sucrose) in your Tea is just as bad for your teeth as five sugars. The only difference is that you may get fat, more prone to diabetes and other health complications with a higher sugar intake but much lower amounts of sugar ingestion will still cause teeth damage. So we have to assume all foods we eat contain sugar (fermentable carbohydrate) of some type.

This dissolving of the teeth, called dental decay or dental caries, puts you and your child at the risk of dental pain, infection and the need for treatments possibly including tooth removal.

Thinking that, in the case of young children, it does not matter (after all, ‘baby teeth’ will be replaced) is wrong. The decay of deciduous teeth may still lead to your child having pain and infection but worse, teeth removal possibly needing General Anaesthesia. This is a procedure not without risk and not easy to access in Pembrokeshire with the nearest GA treatment centre being in Swansea with waiting times often inappropriate for acute pain. There is also the fact that early loss of first teeth is much more likely to lead to crowded or crooked permanent teeth: a fact that may require later orthodontics (treating with braces).

The dentists at Herbrandston, one of Pembrokeshire’s most proactive dental practices in regard to prevention of dental disease, give a different message. Dr Mark Boulcott, the principal dental surgeon states: “I never tell parents to stop giving sweets. That message is unrealistic and unhelpful. The modern diet is full of sugary drinks, sugary confectionary and sugar containing meals. Instead I am far more interested in the frequency of sugar ingestion: how often patients eat sugar, not how much sugar.”

“It has been known for decades that sugar causes bacteria in the mouth to form acid which in turn damages teeth. Of course, no sugar equals no tooth decay, but what most patients (and indeed many dentists) fail to understand is that the amount of sugar required to cause bacteria to produce acid is minimal. The more sugar you eat does not mean more acid in your mouth – but even the slightest sugar intake causes tooth damage.”

Dr Boulcott points to evidence from as far back as the 1940s, when Dr Robert Stephan postulated the coincidence of reducing pH (acidity) and tooth decay: “It is evident even before the advent of the NHS that dental decay was not caused by having too much sugar, but by having too great a frequency of intake. Sugar causes damage by allowing mouth bacteria to produce acid but the amount of sugar eaten is irrelevant. Any damage caused by the acid (at a microscopic level) should be repaired provided the saliva is allowed and able to work properly, converting acid back to neutral products and acting to ‘repair’ damaged teeth. If sugar is regularly ingested and more acid is produced before this ‘repair’ process is completed then dental decay will result. The upshot of this is that if a child ate a chocolate bar for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it is in fact unlikely that they will get significant dental decay. If they eat the same amount of chocolate between meals, then they are much more likely: Twice the cycle of damage and far less time for repair. It should be understood that a sugar diet is inevitable,” states Dr Boulcott.

“What people must understand is that keeping food intake to mealtimes only is the best way to keep your teeth safe. This one fact is more important than tooth brushing or Fluoride. So, yes, Children (and adults) can eat sweets but keep these short acting (chocolate rather than a chewy sweet) and confine these to mealtimes – avoid eating between meals.”

Sadly some 60 years on and this simple message is still failing to get through. Dentistry and preventive messages still seem to mean little to a large percentage of the population with people in Wales being less likely to have been seen a dentist in the past two years than people in England. (52.2% of adults in Wales and 56% in England; and 64.7% of children in Wales compared to 69.1% in England). Many people argue that the reducing amount of NHS dentistry is to blame but in reality many patients (over half the population of Wales) seek dentists only in event of an emergency; citing anxiety rather than money (or NHS access) as being the major obstacle to visiting.

At Herbrandston, the dentists are trying to change this attitude by breaking down the barriers of fear and anxiety offering often unique ways of dealing with even the most difficult of dental phobias. This not only includes a gentle caring atmosphere of quiet professionalism mixed with genuine friendliness but also techniques such as dental sedation, hypnosis, introductory sessions without treatment and even animal therapy using pigs and ferrets to desensitize. They are working hard to emphasise the preventative message rather than the cycle of repair after repair. A very busy practice despite being in a rather isolated part of Pembrokeshire, Herbrandston will be expanding to open a state of the art new practice in Narberth in March.

Community

Social housing plans for Cleddau Bridge Hotel site backed

Published

17 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter

A SCHEME to build 38 affordable and social housing units on the site of a fire-ravaged former Pembrokeshire hotel has been backed by senior Pembrokeshire councillors.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet, meeting on April 22, supported a contract with developer Castell Group Ltd for the mix of affordable homes and social housing units at the Cleddau Bridge Hotel site, Pembroke Dock.

Members, in a report presented by Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery Cllr Jon Harvey, heard Castell had approached the council’s housing service to determine whether there is an interest in working with them to bring forward the development as a social/affordable housing site.

Castell Construction Ltd specialises in the construction of affordable / social housing, typically for registered social landlords across south Wales, and hopes to build 12 one-bedroom flats, 15 two-bed houses, five three-bed, two four-bed, and four two-bed bungalows.

The development package would be part-funded from the housing revenue account, the remainder from the Social Housing Grant and/or second homes premium for affordable housing if it becomes available for the Housing Service to use in this manner.

Cllr Harvey – who moved approval – said the scheme was expected to provide £230,000 a year in rentals income, describing it as “an excellent opportunity to work with a proven developer for extra social housing in an area of proven need.”

Deputy Leader Cllr Paul Miller said he was supportive of the scheme, as was local member Cllr Joshua Beynon, saying: “It’s a bit of an eyesore at the moment, if we can bring this site back into meaningful use, and in an area where there is a need, I’m all in support of this.”

Members backed senior officers be delegated powers to enter into the works contract, and to have powers to proceed with the land acquisition.

If a subsequent planning permission is secured for the site, the homes could be built by autumn 2026.

In a prime location at one of the entrances to Pembroke Dock, the former Cleddau Bridge Hotel has been derelict since a fire in March 2019, which brought emergency services from as far afield as Ammanford, Aberystwyth and Swansea.

Community

County Hall to offer space for community banking

Published

17 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Bruce Sinclair Local Democracy Reporter

A CALL for Pembrokeshire County Council to potentially change its banking arrangement with Barclays, after it closed its Haverfordwest branch has been turned down, but County Hall is to offer space for community banking.

Barclays Bank, on the town’s High Street, is to close on May 10.

The council has had a banking services contract with Barclays since 2013.

Councillor Huw Murphy, in a notice of motion heard by Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet meeting of April 22, asked the council to review its banking arrangements with Barclays following the announced closure.

e said the loss of a branch “not only impacts upon town centres and businesses but also disproportionately impacts the elderly who are less likely to embrace on-line banking options”.

A report for Cabinet members said, in terms of the impact on Pembrokeshire residents, Barclays has said that it is “not leaving Haverfordwest and [will] continue to provide face-to-face support for those who need it” via community locations.

Two options were presented to Cabinet: to retender the banking services contract, and, the favoured, to work with Barclays to ensure a community location is set up in Haverfordwest.

Members heard the costs associated with moving to a new banking service provider could be in excess of £50,000.

For the second, favoured option, members heard Barclays was in discussions with the council about a location for potential community banking.

Cabinet Member for Corporate Finance Cllr Alec Cormack, after outlining the risks in the report for members, and moving the notice be not adopted, said he had “considerable sympathy” with Cllr Murphy’s notice.

He told councillors there was a glimmer of light for banking arrangements in the county, with an agreement now signed for two ground floor rooms at County Hall, Haverfordwest, to be used for community banking.

From April 25, the rooms will be available on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, members heard.

Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery Cllr Jon Harvey also said he had “a lot of sympathy” for the motion, adding: “It’s excellent news a deal has been struck to occupy the ground floor rooms three days a week; hopefully this will mitigate, to a certain amount, the closure.

“If we can work with the respective banks to get a community-type approach let’s move forward.”

Community

Little and Broad Haven RNLI to feature in Saving Lives at Sea

Published

1 day ago

April 22, 2024

Design Team

RNLI/Denys Bassett-Jones

As the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) marks 200 years of lifesaving, the volunteer lifeboat crew of Little and Broad Haven are set to take to the nation’s television screens on Tuesday 30 April as they feature in the ninth series of Saving Lives at Sea on BBC Two and iPlayer.

The new series comes in the wake of an incredible milestone for the RNLI, as the charity marked two centuries of lifesaving on 4 March 2024.

After a special first episode which took a closer look at RNLI crews’ involvement in the Second World War, nine further episodes in the series focus on the lifesaving work of today’s lifeboat crews and lifeguards, featuring footage captured on helmet and lifeboat cameras including Little and Broad Haven RNLI.

Viewers will be able to watch dramatic rescues as they unfold through the eyes of RNLI lifesavers, as well as meeting the people behind the pagers and hearing from the rescuees and their families who, thanks to the RNLI, are here to tell the tale.

This forthcoming episode, on Tuesday 30 April sees Little and Broad Haven RNLI tasked alongside St. Davids lifeboat to a mayday call for a capsized dinghy with three people in the water near Newgale Beach. The episode will also show rescue stories from fellow lifeboat crew volunteers at other stations and beaches around our coasts.

Andrew Thomas, Helm of the Little and Broad Haven lifeboat crew featured in the forthcoming episode, says: ‘The shout out to Pointz Castle is a great opportunity for the public to witness how our small community lifeboat station in Pembrokeshire operates.

‘It’s unusual to have the opportunity to work alongside so many other rescue services, including a local fishing boat who responded to the mayday call. A successful outcome to any shout is always a positive one. The sea can catch anybody out.’

Michael Bool, one of the volunteer crew on that rescue says: ‘The shout was an opportunity to put many aspects of our training into practice, alongside other RNLI assets. As volunteer crew we put the time and effort into training to be on call to assist others when in difficulty at sea, and this shout was a good example of why we do it.

‘Saving Lives at Sea gives an insight into why the RNLI is such an important service for coastal communities and visitors, both in terms of education and rescue when required. It was great to be invited to show some of what we do in Little and Broad Haven’.

Another volunteer crew member on that day, Gareth Light, says: ‘This was a great example of why the RNLI is such a valuable service and even better that everyone got to go home safely. Filming with Saving Lives at Sea was a great opportunity to give the general public a look at our lives and experiences as volunteer crew for the RNLI.’

Filming took place over the past year, with lifeboat crews and lifeguards carrying special cameras and welcoming film-makers into their day-to-day lives on the coast. Rescues from the RNLI archives are also revisited, and we get a glimpse into the everyday lives of the thousands of men and women who give up their time to save lives at sea.

Saving Lives at Sea is broadcast at 8pm on Tuesdays on BBC Two and iPlayer.

RNLI media contacts
For more information please contact Denys Bassett-Jones, RNLI volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer on Denys[email protected].

Alternatively you can contact Claire Fitzpatrick-Smith, Regional Communications Manager on [email protected] or 07977 728315, or contact the RNLI Press Office on 01202 336789.

Little and Broad Haven RNLI crew with St.Davids Lifeboat

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.

Learn more about the RNLI

For more information please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the News Centre.

Contacting the RNLI – public enquiries

Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.