Calcium phosphate: Nutrition in prevention of early childhood dental caries

Early childhood dental caries is defined by its complex etiology of intersecting causations. Diet in combination with good oral hygiene, is the most prominently alterable component of this etiology. Providing enough calcium phosphate in the diet of the pregnant and nursing mother and eventually in the weaning infant ensures that a prominent component (calcium phosphate deficiency) of the complex diagram that is dental caries can be eliminated, thus reducing susceptibility. This is now being taken a step further in a new model of dentistry that examines the mineral content of saliva, as well as bacteria, counts and uses a combination of bacterial control and mineral availability to re-mineralize early lesions and prevent more extensive decay before it emerges.