It's only teething... A report of the myths and modern approaches to teething

Teething - filling in the gaps…

Dentists and dental care professionals may be faced with concerns from parents and carers regarding teething in infants and young children. Teething is a normal physiological and self-limiting process; however, the diverse signs and symptoms that have, over time, been attributed to teething, can make diagnosis challenging. Appropriate diagnosis is crucial in preventing the potentially life-threatening sequalae of dismissing symptoms as teething and delaying appropriate treatment of a systemically unwell child. Management of teething can be approached in a five-step process based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical knowledge summary on teething. These include: 1) history-taking, clinical examination, diagnosis and referral of systemically unwell or severely distressed children for urgent medical review; 2) providing parental/carer reassurance, information and preventative advice; 3) simple, non-pharmacological management strategies; 4) pharmacological intervention; 5) safety-netting advice in case the child becomes systemically unwell, has prolonged symptoms, or is in severe distress. The purpose of this article is to bridge knowledge gaps regarding teething to enable appropriate diagnosis and encourage dissemination of preliminary information and ensure appropriate referral by frontline dental professionals.

Knowledge and management practices of infant teething symptoms among mothers in a tertiary facility in Ghana

Introduction

teething is a natural process that all infants go through, and most toddlers obtain their first tooth around six months. However, misconceptions about teething and its remedies are still prevalent. The study assessed the knowledge and management practices of infant teething symptoms among mothers whose children were admitted to the Pediatric ward of Tamale Teaching Hospital.

Methods

the study adopted a prospective descriptive cross-sectional design with a quantitative data collection method. A total of 251 mothers were selected using a convenient sampling strategy, and a structured questionnaire was used for data collection.

Results

the study found that 79.7% and 20.3% of respondents had good and poor knowledge of teething, respectively. Also, 65.3% and 34.7% of the mothers had good and poor practices, respectively, in the management of teething symptoms. Marital status (p= 0.029) and type of ward (p= 0.020) were significantly associated with mothers' knowledge of teething. Furthermore, mothers less than 30 years of age (OR, 2.07; 95% CI: 1.19-3.57; p= 0.009) and mothers with formal education (OR, 2.22; 95% CI: 1.22-3.81; p= 0.004) were more likely to have good management practices for teething symptoms.

Conclusion

most mothers have a good understanding of child teething, but they do not think delayed eruptions indicate systemic disease. They identified taking the child to the hospital during teething symptoms and administering Paracetamol to relieve the symptoms as standard practices. However, more education is needed to differentiate between teething signs and other ailments and to prevent substandard first aid practices during teething.

Traditional medical practices for children in five islands from the Society archipelago (French Polynesia)

BACKGROUND

Traditional Polynesian medicine for children has been poorly documented, and few data are available on their efficacy and safety. In this context, the aim of this study was to identify traditional practices used for treating children and then assess the efficacy and safety of the most cited remedies by reviewing the literature.

METHODS

In 2022, a semi-structured survey was carried out on five islands from the Society archipelago (Bora Bora, Huahine, Moorea, Raiatea, and Tahiti). A total of 86 participants were interviewed including 19 experts in herbalism. A thorough literature review was performed on the most cited plant species to gather the relevant ethnobotanical, pharmacological, and clinical data of each remedy.

RESULTS

Participants mentioned using 469 remedies to treat 69 health disorders. The most represented health categories were digestive system, skin disorders, infectious diseases, and respiratory system. A total of 67 plant species (representing 731 use-reports) were mentioned and Annona muricata, Gardenia taitensis, and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis were the main plants reported. Regarding the safety of cited remedies, one plant (Microsorum grossum) showed high risk of toxicity, and its use should be avoided in infants and children.

CONCLUSION

Our survey confirms the importance of traditional medical practices for children in the Society Islands. A lack of data in children for most cited remedies demonstrate the need for more pharmacological and toxicological research on Polynesian medicinal plants. Finally, the potential risk of toxicity for some cited plant species reported calls for a better information of traditional medicine users and healers.

Experience of Turkish parents about their infants' teething

AIM

To evaluate Turkish parents' experience about their infants' teething; which symptoms they have seen and attributed to teething and how they have acted to manage these symptoms.

METHODS

A questionnaire form was applied by face-to-face interview to 335 families who have children less than 18 months of age and have at least one tooth. They were asked questions to clarify the eruption time and sequence of primary teeth of their infants and whether their infants had some symptoms they attributed to teething.

RESULTS

The mean eruption time of the primary teeth was 7.4 +/- 2.0 months, with a range of 3-17 months. Teeth eruption time was found similar in both genders. Teeth eruption time of the term and preterm infants was similar. (P > 0.05). The first tooth erupted was the lower central incisor in the 288 infants (86.0%) and upper central incisor in 44 infants (13.1%). Most of the families (98.8%) reported that their children had suffered from at least one of the symptoms that were mentioned in the questionnaire. The most commonly reported symptom was increase in biting, followed by irritability and fever. Of the children who were taken to a health care centre, in 78.8% the symptoms were attributed to teething and in 7.1% a bacterial infection was found and antibiotics were prescribed.

CONCLUSION

When an infant at teething age has some symptoms, they may be attributed to teething but other possible causes must be ruled out first.