Sir, I read the article on food advertisements and children with interest.1 This is an area I feel strongly about, both as a mother to two young children and as an oral surgeon. Demand is ever increasing for GA exodontia, and children as young as three or four are often having full dental clearances. This paints a depressing picture about the national state of our physical and oral health. Such major procedures are not only traumatic but also often lead to dental phobias. These children are at risk not only of dental phobia but also obesity and type 2 diabetes; this health burden is likely to become unsustainable for the NHS.2

From a personal perspective, becoming a mother has opened my eyes not only to the effect advertising has on young children but also the culture we live in. My 4-year-old is like a sponge absorbing information, and he will take as gold anything said on television – far more credible than his mother. I am dismayed by the number of adverts for junk food and the wild claims attached to them; for example, a well-known chocolate spread being promoted as a healthy breakfast alternative along with most cereals, which have eye-watering amounts of sugar. I do not enjoy, but understand my responsibility, having to explain to him why these foods are not healthy and why he cannot regularly eat them. However, we cannot blame advertising alone; children are bombarded everywhere – whether as part of the supposedly healthy free school meals or at friends' houses and parties. We live in a culture where we use junk food as bribery, reward and a pacifier for our young. Until the culture and the environment we live in changes, then I do not see the situation improving. To get environment and behaviour change, I see no other option than government regulation, much like we have for tobacco and alcohol. We cannot expect the food companies to change themselves.

As a dental profession, I understand the need to 'educate' the public, and these campaigns should be done. However, information alone – I find often interpreted as lecturing and condescending – rarely induces behaviour change.3 With this in mind, we should not lose momentum and loudly and publicly continue to lobby government to introduce regulation to curb processed junk food in general, especially when targeted to the most precious and impressionable in our society, the best asset we have, our children.