Vitamin D can protect teeth from decaying, researchers say.
Vitamin D is essential for bone growth and a deficiency can lead to rickets, a bone-softening disease, among young children.
For the study, Dr. Philippe Hujoel and colleagues analyzed the cases of more than 3,000 children across the world, part of 24 previous studies, conducted between 1920 and 1980.They found that vitamin D cut down the risks of tooth decay by half (50 percent).
"My main goal was to summarize the clinical trial database so that we could take a fresh look at this vitamin D question," Dr. Hujoel of the University of Washington said in a news release.
Even though the benefits of vitamin D in ensuring bone health are well-known, its power to prevent tooth decay has been a topic of debate from a long time.
The studies reviewed were conducted in different settings like schools and hospitals across the U.S., UK, Canada, Austria, New Zealand and Sweden. Participants ranged between ages two and 16.
"Whether this is more than just a coincidence is open to debate," Hujoel said. "In the meantime, pregnant women or young mothers can do little harm by realizing that vitamin D is essential to their offspring's health. Vitamin D does lead to teeth and bones that are better mineralized."
According to experts, the current study has succeeded in proving the role of vitamin D in preventing tooth decay.
"...the findings from the University of Washington reaffirm the importance of vitamin D for dental health," Dr. Michael Hollick, professor of medicine at the Boston University Medical Center, said, while adding that "children who are vitamin D deficient have poor and delayed teeth eruption and are prone to dental caries."
Results of the study have been published in the December issue of Nutrition Reviews.
According to experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children should be given foods rich in vitamin D like milk, cereal, orange juice, yogurt and margarine and it is essential for children to take a supplement of vitamin D daily as it is difficult to maintain the adequate levels only through diet. Finding the life-long health benefits of vitamin D, the AAP revised its vitamin D supplementation from 200 IU to 400 IU per day.
Some of the natural sources of vitamin D, apart from sunshine, include shiitake and button mushrooms, oily fish (tuna, mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, kipper, carp, anchovies and orange roughy), beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks.
