Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comA kiss on the mouth or sharing utensils can transmit bacteria
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Okay, seriously?!?
Okay we are told to bond with our child to shower them with hugs and kisses and now we're told we're giving them cavities. What are we to do? If we don't bond with our child with hugs and kisses they will grow up to be maladjusted and abused as a child. If we kiss them we will have children growing up well-adjusted but with no teeth. What is a parent to do?
Um, don't kiss them on the mouth. It's weird to kiss your baby on the mouth anyway.
Becca's Mom, I'm with you! I don't even want to picture what it would take to "transfer a person's saliva to their baby's mouth" via a kiss...sick.
This article shows yet another "don't do this, don't do that" scary type results from folks with too much time on their hands. Go cure cancer or something.
Good brushing habits is all it takes. Problem solved. Next article please.
Duh! As a dental professional for 30+ years, I have always told parents this. And yes, baby teeth are important not just decoration. Dental health doesn't get the attention it deserves. Generally, dentistry is treated as medicine's crazy cousin. It is as though the mouth isn't connected to the body. Well guess what! We can tell a lot about a person's general health just by looking in their mouth. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, eating disorders, predicting premature babies and those lovely STDs can all show up in your mouth!!! So people - - - put your money where your mouth is and protect your health . Visit you dental health profession!!!
I haven't been to the dentist for 3 years, and even then, it was to remove my wisdom teeth (I'm 25 now). But the dentist is scary and I they used to criticize me when I went twice a year -- I shudder to think how mean they would be after not going for 3 years!!
Why are you guys so mean to your patients? =)
Or people avoid the dentist simply because they can't afford it. Dental insurance is a joke. I needed a root canal and crown, and the out of pocket cost for all of that was higher than the delivery cost for my daughter (Hospital stay, doctor's fee, epidural (sp?) fee).
How sad is that?
Wow, weRdoomed, I'm in the same boat as you.
I didn't go for a while because I didn't have dental insurance. Now I've had it for awhile, but I suppose I keep putting it off because I feel like I'm just going to get lectured while I'm already shelling out money in an uncomfortable situation.
My one glimmer of hope is that I also hadn't been to an optometrist in several years, but when I finally went, my doctor's attitude was hey, I'm going now and that's what counts.
tb314 -
Your lobby group isn't doing its job. You need to put more money into it so they will bribe the legislators to insist that dental health be covered by more policies.
It isn't that the average person doesn't take denistry seriously....it's just that your brothers, the OTHER medical guys, take so much we can't afford regular dental visits.
You boys get together and see how you can impact this situation, ok?
Maybe mothers should live separately from their babies, lest they spread some sort of germ to their young!
You stole my thunder, Misty. My comment was going to be: Oh great, something else for us to feel guilty about!
Once again, another article title that is inaccurate which would seem to draw more readers than the truth might. It is not the cavities that are being passed on, but rather the bacteria that might be passed on. You might, after reading the title, immediately jump to the conclusion that the article is going to say that there is something going on in the womb, given that the point seems to be that it is the mother only. The much less dramatic (and not particularly suprising) point that the bacteria is being passed on through saliva should have been the crux of the title.
Take Michelle off the war against childhood obesity and put her on the war against infant tooth decay, before it's too late.
Here's an idea... how about brushing your kids teeth once in a while?
Seriously. And brushing your own teeth too so you're not passing on gross bacteria. It's so gross how some people don't take care of their mouths.
Agreed, I brushed my son's teeth until he was old enough to do it himself. I still have to inspect though. The problems described in the article almost seem from neglect to a degree.
To a certain degree you are correct, it is neglect...parental neglect.
And I always thought cavities came from sweets, who woulda thunk it?
Swapping spit has a whole new meaning!
I can't believe a dentist actually told a mother to stop kissing her child. This was clearly a dentist who has never had children.
Not to mention the readers who say it grosses them out. Only someone a) has never had kids and or b) who has been overly influenced by the overly sexualized mass media would find a parent giving their child a kiss... YES a kiss on the mouth... gross. It is sad to think that showing a child affection would gross people out... not to mention make parents worried they are ruining their kids teeth.
Wow. How misleading this article is. And the dentists interviewed...really..the enamel is soft on babies teeth? Time for them to go back to school. Enamel, once formed, is as hard as it gets. It doesn't get harder once it's been in the mouth for a while. And about decay being caused by an infection? Here's the real truth. Everyone's mouth contains bacteria. These are called normal flora bacteria. Strep Mutans being one of the thousands colonising our mouths. They actually keep our mouths healthy. They prevent "bad" bacteria from causing actual infections in our tissues.
I've been practicing for over 21 years now..seen hundreds of kids. The bottom line is this: the parents that kept their kids away from juices and other sugary food ( including starchy foods that actually turn to sugar in the mouth ) and drinks, these kids had no issues with decay. The parents that let their kids have whatever they wanted whenever they wanted ( yes including sipping all day on milk, juice, soda ), these kids all had terrible problems with decay. The reason for decay is a simple process: bacteria +sugar= acids.....acids+teeth=decay. Decay is the dissolving of calcium from enamel, making it soft, hence this equals a cavity. There is no such thing as "soft enamel". Any dentist that tells you there is, run, don't walk, away from these people. They obviously missed a lot during their education.
As for what age to have a kids seen, one is a ridiculous age. Every seen someone try to see into or pry into a one year old's mouth? I recommend to all my patients, that age 3 is the time to start. You need some basic cooperation from the patient to actually examine them. Kids around three are able to follow simple commands so actually seeing what is going on can be done. I follow the same things I tell my patients for my own kids..which are 3 and 5. And yes, my kids have no cavities..but not because they live a sterile life. I just limit the times and amounts of things they get..and absolutely no juice. There is not a thing beneficial about it. Want vitamins? Give your kids some multi-vitamins.
Please, disregard the article and kiss you baby. You only have one go around, because before you know it, your baby isn't one anymore. Just protect your kids teeth from the things that are known to cause cavities...your kids, and your pocketbook, will thank you!
Thanks for getting to the "root" of the issue, Mark! I actually learned something from this post =)
And it was sweet too (not decayingly sweet, but it made me wish I had a 1 year old to kiss)!
See...we aren't so doomed!
Well, I wouldn't go that far (the name is a reference to a song I like 'We are beautiful. We are doomed.' I'm actually very optimistic =)
Thanks for posting this, Mark S. You're right about it being a simple solution - how hard is it to realize that sugar=decay? A LOT of kids in my neighborhood have cavities and tooth decay and they're very young. When I took my kids to the nearby dentist she didn't mention a thing about preventing cavities - she just told me what a cavity looked like so I could bring my kids back in when they got one. I was like, "are you kidding me? what about prevention?" The kids in our neighborhood also get something from the ice cream man every day - maybe more than once a day. it's so obvious that they suck on sugar all day long and rarely brush their teeth.
I wish someone knowledgeable like you would have written this article. i can't believe the crap that is published - just trying to stir up fear. I prefer facts. So disgusting..
Thanks again!
This fact is true and a good mother in time will hit their kid hard enough to knock their fillimgs out.
It's always the mother's fault!! Another guilt trip!!
Was this article written by an author with a "toothy grin" or a toothless grin? Maybe we can tell if he had a loving childhood or not by the number of teeth he has in his head.
Maybe if he has a mouth full of teeth and is a grouch because of his upbringing do you suppose he could take a bite out of crime?
I hate dentists but I bite the bullet and go!!
Yet another health risk that endangers our welfare. Let's just make it mandatory to wear body rubbers our entire lives to shield us from... life itself.
Who kisses their kid on the mouth? That just gives me the creeps.
I kiss my kids on the mouth..the lips more specifically. I don't think they were referring to open mouth kissing in the article..at least that's not the way I took it. It's a little creepy if anyone does take it that way.
Funny i remember reading in books saying you cant kiss your dog/hamster or pet on the mouth and now its babys? my gosh i bet in the future there going to say not to hug people or kiss your spouses.
We need to remember that we don't just pass bad bacteria when we kiss or share utensils. Often, we also share good bacteria--the stuff that lives in our mouths and guts and helps to digest food. Sure, we can transmit the bacteria that causes tooth decay, but we can take other steps to address that (like regularly brushing our own teeth and brushing our little ones' teeth), so it is best not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I know maybe we should all be put into plastic bubbles at birth! no touchy touchy
anyways.. what about the immune system? i thought we are all suppose to get sick every now and then?
The sad fact is that we do pass strep mutans on to our children by kissing, sharing utensils (testing the temp. of baby food, for example). Consider something: It wouldn't be nearly so bad if we kept both our baby's AND our own mouths clean. As the article indicates, this is not new data... And, yes, the pathogens will become present along with upwards to 500 others - some microbes being beneficial and some not. The key is to keep the levels of pathogens low so they are not colonizing (forming plaque), otherwise they are quite harmless.
There is a good article on raising kids with healthy teeth for life at http:mizar5.com/children1.html with some excellent tips in dealing with this issue - and it was written 25-30 years ago!
Remember also, that keeping the teeth clean doesn't mean brushing for 30 seconds once or twice a day. It takes more than that. Also consider that, in reference to sweets, that includes fruits and juices - ANY ferment-able sugar is fodder for the pathogens. The process of the conversion of certain carbohydrates to sugars begins rapidly and in the mouth, and while most may be swallowed enough may be left behind on the teeth, and it doesn't take much.
I wouldn't say one should stop kissing, just keep your mouths clean(er) - both you and your baby's. Oh, and while xylitol gum is beneficial, it is in NO WAY a replacement for thorough oral hygiene, despite what the article might imply.
The actual fact is that we as parent pass just about everything along to our kids...and it's really not a sad fact. It's just part of nature. It can't be helped..clean or not. We can't elminate the bacteria we pass along ( look at all the sicknesses spread about despite antibacterial soaps and the like ). Frankly, the saying cleaniness is closest to godliness applies, but nothing is going to stop the passing along of bacteria because there can never be a completely sterile environment. So really, nobody should even worry about any of this.
It is sad, Mark, when tooth decay can be prevented and it isn't, out of ignorance. It is sad when a two-year-old has cavities, don't you think?
Now that, I agree, is sad. My father had a saying..stupidity can be fixed, ignorance is for ever. I've had patients, that as the parents of young kids, and have watched as they pour Mountain Dew into their kids sippy cups..right in my waiting room. So yes, it is very sad to know that parents don't care enough about their kids than to help foster habits that will haunt their kids for years.
I just think the whole idea of innoculation by the parents as causing the whole problem with cavities is ridiculous..it's the parent's ignorance that is the problem and should be the focus of the article.
I am sorry, but I find this bogus... both my boys have perfect teeth no cavities at all. I think it comes down to the parents not brushing their child's teeth before the come in. My kids took fluoride vitamins till the age of 10 and have always brushed their teeth or when smaller we brushed them for them. My husband & have have a mouth full of fillings and we kissed the hell out of them with they were little .... Experts you may want to check again because I don't think kisses cause cavities. Next they will say hugs call obesity hehehehe
"Mom's kiss can spread cavities to baby"
Sure hope we get another Obama executive order putting a stop to this behavior. This could even move up planning for the Obama Memorial Hatchery where we can protect the little government subjects ala THX1138.
Depending on the mother, a lot more than cavities can be spread.
Ok, this sure as hell didn't stop my mom from showering me with TLC, and it sure as hell isn't going to stop me from doing the same with whatever offspring I may have.
What a pathetic article!