Dad's part

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Preventive Dentistry Starts Years Before Conception

The Father’s Part:

Many people still think that only the mother has to worry about what she eats and what type of environmental exposure is present before conception. However, it takes two parents to make a healthy baby. To begin with, male fertility cannot be taken for granted. Many factors can affect the number, strength, and vitality of sperm and even the genetic material they carry. In fact, for some reason, men’s sperm counts worldwide have been dropping over the last 50 years.

Chemical pollution may be to blame. Some toxic chemicals, especially insecticides, are known to be very damaging to sperm. Now we see that cell phones in one's hip pocket is damaging to sperm.

Smoking and sexually transmitted diseases are also making men sterile. According to Dr. David Savitz of the School of Public Health at the Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, men should protect themselves from even casual exposure to lead, alcohol, cigarette smoke, illicit drugs, herbicides, radiation, and some industrial solvents. Toxin-induced damage to sperm may increase the risk of children with birth defects, childhood cancer, and subtle behavioral problems. A father’s exposure to chemicals also increases the risk of miscarriage.

In addition, men who smoke are more likely to have children with a cleft lip and palate, and both cigarette smoking and alcohol use by fathers increase the risk of the baby’s having a heart defect.

FROM HEALTHY TEETH for KIDS, by Dr. Jerry and Beverly Mittelman - published by Kensington - available at your bookstore or Amazon.com

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