When children are found to have cavities by the dentist, adults usually think, “Look, they’ve been eating too much candy!” Some parents feel wronged: “We rarely give our babies candy, why do they still have cavities?” Some parents are helpless: “Babies just love to eat candy, they can’t stop it.” So, what is the relationship between sugar and tooth decay? Is tooth decay caused by eating sugar? Why do children who don’t eat sugar also get tooth decay? Should we give sugar to our children or not? Today, let’s talk about these from the dentist’s perspective! The factors of tooth decay (caries) include: 1) food; 2) bacteria (composition and proportion of cariogenic bacteria in the mouth); 3) teeth (composition and structure); 4) time (the time that the food stays on the surface of the teeth). Bacteria on the tooth surface will break down the food to produce acid, which will corrode the tooth to form cavity under the effect of long time. Food factor does not refer to sugar alone, other than candy, cookies, cakes, bread, milk, meat and vegetables, drinks, and even the rice buns we eat are all food factors of tooth decay. It can be said that almost all foods can cause tooth decay when they stay on the surface of teeth with a large amount of cavity-causing bacteria for a long time. Therefore, even if some children don’t eat much sugar, if they don’t brush their teeth cleanly and have a lot of cavity-causing bacteria in their mouths, they may grow cavities. The sweet and sticky food, such as cookies and candies, is a high risk factor for tooth decay because of its high sugar content and the fact that it is not easy to brush off the surface of the teeth. If children have all the above four factors of food, bacteria, teeth and time, the chance of tooth decay is high. Moms and dads can assess these four factors by themselves according to the following aspects: 1. Is the food structure of the child more sweet and sticky? If so, improve it by eating more coarse fiber food such as vegetables and fruits. 2. Have the mother and father had tooth decay themselves? The oral bacteria content and composition of the child’s close caregivers can affect the child. Avoid kissing the child mouth-to-mouth, use separate dishes for the child, and parents should treat their own teeth and develop good oral hygiene habits. 3, the child’s teeth should be regularly examined, regularly coated with fluoride to enhance the structure of the teeth. Do sulcus closure at the right time to close the gaps on the tooth surface that can hide bacteria and food. 4.Brush the teeth in the morning and evening, rinse the mouth after meals to reduce the time that food stays on the tooth surface. Use a clean wet gauze, preferably a toothbrush, to clean off the milk left on the surface of baby’s teeth after nighttime feeding. Back to the question of the day, should I give my child candy? It is natural for children to love food, just as some moms who are on a diet know that ice cream and cake are the natural enemies of weight loss, but still allow themselves to enjoy them once in a while. It is not advisable to completely prohibit children from eating candy by nature, and in fact it is not possible to do so, because children will always come into contact with other people when they are older and will always see candy. For example, the neighbor lady looks at the child cute to give a candy, children play among themselves to share candy, birthday parties New Year’s Eve full of candy in the street. Therefore, parents of small children under 3 years old, try to avoid giving children candy. Older babies, parents can control, limit the daily or weekly amount, tell the baby to eat candy easy to grow cavities, can not eat more, eat after rinsing mouth. In addition, the time to eat candy can be arranged close to the main meal, so that the teeth will have enough “rest” time between the three daily meals and will not be immersed in the attack of acid produced by bacteria breaking down food all the time.