Ain’t It A Shame
I thought of the title of the old Fats Domino song recently as my Flax Dental staff and I watched Diane Sawyer’s recent show on ABC’s Good Morning and 20/20 ” Heroes of the Hills” http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6889704. As we watched the film, you see young children in the poorest parts of Appalachia drinking Mountain Dew soft drinks like most kids have milk.
The Results: rampant tooth decay that ultimately leads to tooth loss. According to the Centers for Disease Control, this region of Kentucky now leads the nation in having the great number of missing teeth.
For those who don’t know, Mountain Dew and many other “energy drinks” have high sugar, high caffeine, and high acid contents ( with pH levels below 4) that literally “eat your teeth”. Mountain Dew is very popular because of it’s caffeine content is 50% higher than Coke or Pepsi. It supposely helps with depression, etc. for many kids.
- For many children in Appalachia, many get Pepsi in their baby bottles
- Some have as many as 12 cavities by the time they are 2 years old
- Many grow unable to attempt cleaning their teeth because they are so tender and painful
Thankfully, Edwin Smith, DDS has come to the rescue in his roving dental office, a converted 18 wheeler, to help these children break the habit and make their mouths healthy and smiles white once again.
Although Pepsi, Co. has denied responsibility in the past, the company recently donated $150,000 to help out Dr. Smith.
That’s very nice. Just a lttle late in the game. Kind of reminds me of a cigarette company donating a gym to a school for exclusive rights to a cigarette machine in the cafeteria.
What really would be great is if Pepsi–and every softdrink maker out there–would prominently display the acid content, sugar levels, and caffeine amounts so that people would realize the dangers of what they are drinking.
Even better, since psychologists have shown that “Showing often leads to doing”
Put a picture of child who has several dark cavities and missing teeth on each can with a warning label!
What are your thoughts or comments?
