CHICAGO (Reuters) - Add time in the dentist's chair to the childhood risks from inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke, researchers said on Tuesday.

Children subjected to environmental cigarette smoke developed higher blood levels of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, and those children tended to have more cavities in their deciduous, or primary, teeth. "Exposure to tobacco smoke nearly doubles a child's risk of having cavities," said study author and pediatrician Andrew Aligne, who led a team of researchers from the University of Rochester, New York, and the Center for Child Health Research. "That gives us one more piece of information that passive smoking is bad for children and that all children deserve to grow up in a tobacco-free environment," he said. The researchers, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites), studied 3,500 children aged four to 11 and concluded one-quarter of them would not have developed cavities in their primary teeth if environmental smoke was eliminated. Contrary to the common belief that too many sweets cause tooth decay in children, a type of bacteria introduced into the mouth -- sometimes by a mother's kisses -- produces a lactic acid that causes tooth decay. Children's primary teeth are particularly susceptible because they have a thinner protective enamel covering. Exposure to cigarette smoke inhibits their body's ability to fight off infection, making those children who inhale smoke more susceptible to illnesses ranging from colds and earaches to tooth decay, the report said. Saliva in the mouth can counteract the lactic acid, but passive smoking also causes throat inflammation, which leads to mouth breathing, which dries out the mouth. The researchers said their data was from surveys done between 1988 and 1994, and tooth decay has steadily declined with increased use of fluoridated water and toothpastes. Still, tooth decay remains the most common chronic childhood disease and Americans spend $4.5 billion yearly on treatment, the report said.

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