The more parents dreaded dentists, the more fearful they expected their children to be, says Marita Inglehart , associate professor of dentistry and adjunct associate professor of psychology. Other findings were not as surprising, says Inglehart. The lower the family income, the worse the child's oral health and the more afraid the child will be. That makes sense, because if a child has bad teeth and has a lot of fillings early on, the experience is unpleasant. On the other hand, if you have a parent who takes the child to the dentist every six months for cleaning, and nothing else needs to be done, it's not surprising that that child has no fear.
Conventional wisdom says yes, but dental researchers have had a hard time pinning down the link.
With schools installing pop machines and young people's soft drink consumption on the rise, interest in the question has been increasing. Now, researchers from the U-M School of Public Health and the School of Dentistry have shown that the association between sugared soda consumption and tooth decay may be changing. The U-M team found that adults aged 25 and older who drank sugared sodas three or more times a day had 17 percent to 62 percent more decayed, missing and filled teeth than people in the same age group who drank sugary soft drinks less often. It's possible that the effects of consuming sugared soda are cumulative. Maybe just a few years isn't going to do it, but if habits develop when people are young, you may see an effect over a longer period.