ECC should be treated because severely decayed teeth can cause pain, swelling and infection; affecting your child's diet, growth and development of teeth and jaws.
Treatment depends on multiple factors such as the severity of ECC, and the child's behaviour and ability to cope with treatment. NDCS offers a range of treatment options incuding fluoride treatment, minimally invasive procedures (e.g. hall technique, siver diamine fluoride) and treatment under local anaesthesia or general anaesthesia. Sedation is currently unavailable in NDCS.
Oral health programmes for young children have shown to be effective in the prevention of dental caries. In a local study[1], clinical efficacy of a two-year oral health programme for infants and toddlers in Singapore was examined.
The study compared the presence of severe early childhood caries (SECC) between children enrolled into the programme and children that did not undertake interventions from the programme that target behaviour modifications.
Results showed that a higher percentage of children who received intervention as part of the programme had no tooth decay and were observed to display habits associated with low risk for caries. Children who were not enrolled in the programme were 3 times more likely to have SECC.
Tooth decay is preventable and early preventive dental visits can possibly reduce the likelihood of disease.
[1] Lai B, Tan WK, Lu QS. Clinical efficacy of a two-year oral health programme for infants and toddlers in Singapore. Singapore Med J. 2018 Feb;59(2):87-93. doi: 10.11622/smedj.2017045. Epub 2017 May 25. PMID: 28540394; PMCID: PMC6119743.
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