Influence of Free-Sugar Intake on Dental Caries

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building shared awareness and understanding for what is expected. Without these structures, employees guess at what they should do, actions are inconsistent, and sometimes their habits do not fit well with your team and practice, creating conflict.

In addition to clarifying your internal systems, policies and procedures, you should also begin building your training and professional development offerings. Now more than ever, practices need to look within to see if there are employees who can “grow into” new positions, as well as potentially be promoted into leadership roles. You may have someone in the practice who has some natural leadership abilities but needs additional support to take on an office or practice manager role. There are many trainings out there on supervision, communication, conflict resolution, etc. . . . .

Regardless of the training you use, make sure that the learning objectives align with your goals and that it is delivered in a way that is engaging for you staff.

Training is one step in building new skills, but it is not sufficient by itself. Training plus ongoing coaching and mentoring at the practice level is what creates real changes; helping employees refine their skills as they build new habits. This requires synchronization and ongoing effort on your part to ensure that your investments in training and development bear fruit. Whether you’re focused on growing leaders or building a talent pipeline, you’ll need to be heavily involved in the process.

This is going to be the way of the future when it comes to talent acquisition. While we may long for the days of “post and pick,” the truth is that this new path forward – while more timeand cost- intensive - is also more flexible, more predictable, and more likely pay off in the long run.

Jodi Schafer Michigan Dental Association

ASSOCIATION

INFLUENCE OF FREE-SUGAR INTAKE ON DENTAL CARIES

A study investigating the relationship between free-sugar intake in early childhood and dental caries found that between ages 18 months and 4 years, free-sugar consumption increased markedly in two-thirds of the children studied, increasing the risk of dental caries at ages 4-6 years. Free sugar is any sugar added to a food or drink or the sugar that is already in honey, syrup and fruit juice. These are free because they’re not inside the cells of the food we consume.

For the study, free-sugar consumption was measured in children enrolled in the Barwon Infant Study at ages 18 months and 4 years. The exposure, free-sugar intake, was quantified as continuous and binary variables indicating less than 5% of total energy intake (TEI) at ages 18 months and 4 years. The prevalence of dental caries was obtained from dental records, and multiple logistic regression estimated the effect of the exposure variables on the presence of dental caries at ages 4 to 6 years, adjusting for potential confounders.

Of the original birth cohort, dietary data and dental caries data were available. Of the participants studied, 70.4% and 36.7% consumed less than 5% TEI from free sugars at ages 18 months and 4 years, respectively. Dental caries affected 46.7% of children. In fully adjusted models, free sugar at age 18 months increased dental caries risk at ages 4-6 years.

The study was presented by Australian researchers at the recent 100th General Session and Exhibition of the IADR, held in conjunction with the 5th Meeting of the IADR Asia Pacific Region.