A UQ Health research team is seeking natural solutions to the havoc wrought by asthma-induced corrosion on children's teeth.

While asthma's respiratory effects are widely known, more than half of Australians with asthma may also suffer the painful effects of dramatic dental erosion and decay.

The link, according to principal investigator Dr William George Young of UQ's School of Dentistry, is that the primary medications used to treat and manage asthma have the unfortunate side-effect of reducing the oral fluids ­- such as saliva ­- that naturally protect the teeth.

They may also cause gastric acid reflux (suffered by 60 percent of asthmatics), which has a similar corrosive effect on children's teeth as soft-drink.

Dr Young explained that dental erosion -­ unlike decay -­ could not be prevented by plaque removal or fluoride in the water, hence his team was seeking natural solutions to the problem.

"What we are looking at is developing natural methods of saliva stimulation providing extra protection for people with asthma," Dr Young said.

"In collaboration with Dr Peter Davies of the Children's Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC) at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital, we are investigating appropriate diet strategies and advice.

"Ultimately, the research will assist parents and children to cope with the dental consequences of asthma management, and hopefully give children with asthma a much better foundation for oral health in adulthood."

Dr Young is a widely published author of research papers based on more than 15 years' of diagnosing and managing tooth-wear conditions.

Co-researcher Dr Peter Davies, Scientific Director of the CNRC and an Associate Professor in UQ's Paediatrics and Child Health Department, won the British Nutrition Society Medal in 1991.

Dr Peter Davies www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/daviespsw.html

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