Candy Professor

Cavities? Blame mom…

April 8, 2013 at 10:20 am 1 comment

In my book, I have a whole chapter on cavities and how easy it was to blame candy for America’s terrible teeth.

It is never so simple, of course: there is no one thing that directly causes cavities. But we like simple answers and we like villains.

These days, experts have been paying more attention to the particular kinds of bacteria that are associated with decay, and why some people seem to have them and some don’t. There’s a theory that these bacteria may be contagious. So this means it’s not so easy to just blame candy and be done with it.

Instead, our health experts have fingered a new culprit: mothers. Here’s a poster from the NYC Department of Health and Hygeine that I saw on the subway yesterday:

Get it? Mom’s kisses and sharing are rotting baby’s teeth. Bad mother.

Sigh. I mean, maybe this is good “public health” policy and good advice. And I should be happy that more “scientific” views than “candy rots your teeth” have prevailed. But I am discouraged when the only solution seems, yet again, to blame the mothers.

Entry filed under: Health.