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More vitamin D, less dental caries
If children increase their vitamin D levels through supplements or sunlight, their risk of cavities in their molars and teeth decreases. This is apparent from an older American meta-study that appeared in Nutrition Reviews.
Study
Philippe Hujoel, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, published a meta-study in 2013 for which he had collected 24 previously published studies. In these studies, children and teens had received supplements of vitamins D2 or D3, or ultraviolet light treatments, for several months.
A total of 2,827 children and teenagers had participated in the trials. The researchers had determined whether the supplementation or the radiation treatments had had an effect on dental health.
The mean (more precisely: the median) dose of vitamins D3 and D2 was 800 and 3750 IU per day, respectively.
Results
Overall, the treatments reduced the risk of cavities by 47 percent. UV light reduced the risk of cavities by 64 percent, supplementation with vitamin D3 reduced the risk by 49 percent and supplementation with vitamin D2 reduced the risk of cavities by 36 percent. However, these differences were not statistically significant.
Click on the figure below for a larger version.
Analyzing his data further, Hujoel found that vitamin D supplementation had an impact on dental health when the children were younger than 13. He suspects that the children's body weight increases so quickly that the effectiveness of the vitamin decreases.
If this explanation holds water, higher doses of vitamin D may still enhance dental health after the age of thirteen.
Conclusion
"This systematic review of controlled clinical trials suggests that vitamin D exposures in early life may play a role in caries prevention", writes Hujoel.
"This promising evidence base may be relevant to current challenges in improving health, as vitamin D levels in the US population are decreasing and dental caries among US children is increasing."
Source:
Nutr Rev. 2013 Feb;71(2):88-97.
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