Dietary Sugar Exposure and Oral Health Status in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Case-control Study.

Moorthy et al. (2022) matched the children with autism to 45 typical kids.

They asked parents to write down every food and drink for three days.

A dentist then counted cavities, plaque, and checked for grinding, mouth-breathing, and cheek-biting.

Both groups ate the same amount of sugar and had the same number of cavities.

Kids with autism had thicker plaque even though parents said they brushed more.

They also showed twice as much teeth-grinding, mouth-breathing, and self-biting inside the mouth.

Bicer et al. (2013) saw that most Turkish kids with autism were overweight yet low on calcium and zinc.

Lakshmi’s team now shows sugar intake is equal, so the extra plaque is not from more candy—likely from poor brushing technique or oral habits.

Xiong et al. (2009) found weight climbs with age in Chinese autism centers; together the two papers warn that physical problems pile up even when calories look normal.

Amore et al. (2011) proved parents and ABA tutors can fix feeding refusal at home—hinting you can also train them to target plaque and habits using the same coaching model.

You can stop blaming sugar for bad teeth in autism. Focus on plaque removal and track grinding, mouth-breathing, and cheek-biting instead. Add visual tooth-brushing scripts and habit-reduction plans to your behavior plan. A quick dental screening at intake and yearly follow-ups can catch small problems before they hurt or trigger self-injury.