Editorial: From diet to dental health: harnessing data and digital health records

and potential inaccuracies in routinely collected clinical data. The BigMouth Dental Data Repository study by Tiwari et al., 2025 highlights the importance of this by evaluating half a million patient visits' EHR data for completeness. Despite the core demographic data being complete, they reported notable differences in completeness for dental and behavioral data, as well as based on provider types (students, faculty, residents) from eleven dental schools 4 . The findings emphasize not only the need for a dental data repository itself, but also standardized data entry practices, education and training on complete and thorough data collection, and interpretation of EHR-based variables for instituting precision-based care.Drinking water fluoridation is an important milestone in public health to prevent dental caries at the population level primarily through its topical impact on enamel by inhibiting demineralization and enhancing remineralization 10 . Systemic fluorides intake especially during tooth development also enhance lifelong resistance to dental caries. In societies where water fluoridation is not implemented or inaccessible, the fluoride contents in food can provide protection against dental caries. However, aside from a few fluoride ingestion studies 11 , 12 comprehensive data on the bioavailability/accessibility of fluoride-containing foods are still lacking. To address this, Jelena Kronic et al., 2025 quantified dietary fluoride of 103 commonly consumed foods by children. The mean bio accessibility of food fluoride was approximately 44% underscoring significant differences in bioavailability 5 . Fluoride utilization through food consumption is low but increases when combined with tap water, milk, and drinks underscoring the importance of monitoring food and revisiting dietary fluoride guidelines. Additionally, dietary intake and feeding practices also play a crucial role in the formation of dental caries among young children. In this context, an important study published in this collection by Geng-Yu Hu and colleagues provides valuable insights into feeding practices, especially bedtime feeding habits and dental caries prevalence in 5-7 year-old children 6 . These two studies further reinforce the importance of integrating dietary components into patients' dental records. These recommendations are important to establish seamless interoperability between medical and dental domains and promote a cross-disciplinary approach.Dietary patterns also influence the connection between systemic health and oral conditions especially periodontal diseases. For examples, diets rich in carbohydrates, saturated fats and processed foods are frequently associated with a plethora of systemic conditions including diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension, which in turn exacerbate periodontal diseases. In contrast, a healthier diet encompassing fiber, fruits, vegetables, legumes, lean protein sources, and unsaturated fats support metabolic health and decrease periodontal disease risk 13,14 . Although, electronic dental records rarely capture dietary information, incorporating structured dietary data would help identifying at risk individuals and promote precision-based nutrition practice within a dental clinical setting. In this collection, Zhang et al, 2025 have reported how different dietary indices are associated with periodontal disease risk 7 . Using NHANES data, they have shown that poor adherence to a particular dietary plan, e.g., DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, is associated with a high risk of periodontitis at the population level. Therefore, an automated system for calculating dietary indices incorporated into the EDR system will help in assessing their risk of oral diseases.