Watching too much television could be harmful to children's dental health, according to research published in the next issue of the BDJ. In their paper, Content analysis of children's television advertising in relation to dental health, H.D. Rodd and V. Patel examine the number of hours sold to advertisers of food and drink during children's television viewing time. Examining 41 hours of children's television programming broadcast on the UK's main commercial television channel, ITV1, the researchers found that 24 adverts were shown per broadcast hour (subjecting Britain's children to the highest level of television advertising in Europe).

Just over a third of adverts related to food and drink, 95.3% of which could be detrimental to oral health as they contain high levels of sugar and/or acid. The most frequently promoted foods were breakfast cereals with added-sugar, confectionery, and non-carbonated soft drinks. In the UK, there have been calls by health professionals for greater regulation of food advertising to children. In countries such as Norway and Sweden, advertising to children has been banned outright. 'A more reasonable approach would be to ensure that adverts for potentially unhealthy food and drink products are limited, and ideally should carry a health warning!', state the authors.

Although previous studies have shown that food and drink advertising accounts for a large proportion of adverts shown during children's television hours, this study identifies a higher transmission rate of adverts (and one that appears to be in breach of current UK advertising regulations) than had been previously reported.