Hi Sereying, want discuss with you the very important aspect of newborn and infants which is known as "TEETHING" in paediatric dentistry
Without much emphasis let's Blurt on to the main aspect of the post.
First of, What's TEETHING ?
Teething is a physiological phenomenon by which a newborn's first teeth (the deciduous teeth, which is known "baby teeth" or "milk teeth") appear by emerging through the gum pad, usually erupting in pairs. The lower central incisors are the first primary teeth to erupt, usually between 6 and 10 months of age and typically comes along with discomfort and pain to the infant. It could up to some years for all 20 deciduous teeth to fill both upper and lower arches.
"Though the process of teething is sometimes referred to as "cutting teeth", when teeth emerge through the gums they do not cut through the flesh. Instead, hormones are released within the body that cause some cells in the gums to die and separate, allowing the teeth to come through."Source
Teething may cause a mild temperature elevation but not up to fever range of more than 38.0 °C. There are some misconception among nursing mothers that teething causes fever and elevate body temperature and diarrhea which is very wrong and not medically proven though it is likely to have fever and very high elevated temperature during teething due to compromised health and sickness such as a herpes simplex virus, which is a viral infection very common especially among children of teething age
The level of pain tolerated by each child is different. Some children show displeasure with any form of pain and abnormalities. The main main source of pain in teething is the soreness and swelling of the gums before a tooth emerges which is inflammatory reaction of the gums to the erupting teeth and changes in nature a pain encounter as first of its kind.
These symptoms usually prevails and become obvious about three to five days before the tooth displays, and they Wear off as soon as the tooth points out through gummy skin.Some babies are concerned with the teething and it's like normal to them.
Some symptoms of teething includes:
Common symptoms are as follows; drooling or dribbling, feeling of chewing anything whether edible or not, changes of countenance and composure, irritability ,and red swollen gums. Repeated crying, lack of sleep, tired and unable to rest at nocturnal period and mild fever with increase in body temperature are also associated with teething.
"Teething can begin as early as 3 months and continue until a child's third birthday. In rare cases, an area can be filled with fluid appearing over where a tooth is erupting and causing the gums to be even more sensitive. Pain is more often associated with the eruption of molars since they are larger, and do not penetrate through the gums as easily as the other teeth." Source
Other obvious symptoms of a teething stage in a child includes biting their fingers or anything
around to help relieve pressure on their gums. Babies might loose their appetite due to their refusal to eat or drink by being scared of increasing pain of the swollen gums. Symptoms will generally wear off on their own, but a doctor should be informed if there are any complications or persistency of the displayed symptoms.
Teething in most cases cause signs and symptoms in the mouth and gums, but does not cause disorderliness in other parts of the body.
Pulling and dragging the ears is also sign of discomfort and pain: the pain in the mouth during teeth is referred to almost all parts of the baby's head, so in order to relieve and overcome this referred pain the baby will start pulling the ears believing in it as a relief. Rashes can also develop around the perimeters of the mouth due to the skin irritation by excessive drooling**
Milk teeth or deciduous teeth tends to appear promptly in females than in males. The pattern of eruption and initial starting period of teething in individual children appears to be hereditary. The pattern of of when and how it appears in each child has no relationships or convergence with the health of the child.
There are pattern or sequence of emergence of baby teeth which are recognized as general emergency structure of tooth eruption in paediatric dentistry which are as follows:
The mandibular teeths tends to emerge first before the teeth of the maxillary arches.
First to erupt is the mandibular incisors both central and lateral followed by first molars followed by canine and last but not least the second molars
The teeth starts averagely from 6months and end like 6 years with an eruption of permanent first molars followed by the incisors
General Misconceptions about Teething
Teething has generally been believed by many nursing mothers and even some elite to cause fever or diarrhea. However, this is not practically correct. Although there are some general submissions that teething can cause an elevated or mild increase in body temperature, it does not actually cause fever which is defined medically as rectal temperature surpassing (38.0 °C). Although there are scientific studies that has found found slightly increment in the body temperature about the normal one but there has no clear evidence that teething causes elevated temperature up to that of fever of more than like 39 C and so on.
Although there are certain infections that sets to attack infants at the teething stage of development and which might lead to elevated temperature because children tends to the loose maternal antibodies of the immune system which tends to fend off attack against their body and there for tends to be more susceptible to herpes viral infection, human herpes virus and so on. This occuring at teething tends to be misdiagnosed by ordinary nursing mothers or even unprofessional auxiliary medics as the case maybe
The same goes for Diarrhoea teething has no relationships with the digestion of food. The Diarrhoea has to do with the metabolism of the food intake and the function of the digestive tract.
In order to avoid lengthy write-up as regards teething, this post would be concluded at this juncture and in subsequent posts treatment and some reliving medications for teething symptoms would be discussed.
Thanks for going through this write-up up to this paragraph and happy Sereying 🌴🌴🌴🌴
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