Teething: myths and facts

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

'born with a silver spoon in his mouth' denotes borne into wealth and privilege. This adage is derived from a teething remedy that was used by the affluent.

Main

Sood S, Sood M. J Clin Pediatr Dent 2010; 35: 9–14

The key message from this paper is that if an infant has severe signs of systemic disease, this should not be ascribed to teething. The child should be referred without delay to a physician. This narrative review is full of apocryphal tales: should a child see themselves in a mirror before their first tooth has erupted they will suffer from epilepsy, early eruption of teeth is a sign of great intelligence, yet a misfortune to the family if the child is born with teeth in their mouth. Eruption of primary incisor teeth occurs at the same time as a reduction in maternal humoral immunity. This, and not teething, is the reason why infants succumb to illnesses at this age. The authors describe pharmacological treatments and a myriad of local measures for the 'irritation' associated with teething, including the chilled silver spoon.