Bacteria Causing Dental Cavities Reside in Baby Saliva

According to Professor Kelly Swanson of the University of Illinois, approximately 40% of the children struggle with dental cavities, before reaching kindergarten.

Then, children who come from a family with an extremely low socioeconomic status, or from a family where the mother has a low education level, are actually 32 times more exposed to carry the disease.

The study has been published in PlosOne and it generally focuses on the oral health of babies in stages right before their teeth erupt. It is important to mention that most of the studies in the fields of oral health for children actually focus on the health problems of children who are already in preschool, and who struggle already with dental cavities.

According to Professor Swanson, the medical field believed until now that the window of infectivity in kids has been generally occurring between 19 and 33 months of age. However, it has been proved that it actually occurs much earlier in time.

In order to help preventing future cavities, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry suggests that parents should limit offering their children snacks and drinks with sugar content, and always wipe the gums of the babies who don’t have teeth yet.

Swanson and his team have used improved DNA technologies in order to examine the bacteria population that is at the core of the apparition of early cavities. He further states that dental cavities are not caused by a single pathogen, but by many bacteria in a community.

Through the testing, researchers have found that in the mouth of the babies there reside an extremely diverse community of oral bacteria, and there were hundreds of different species identified. There are many types of bacteria present in the infant saliva, and this fact definitely asks for even more evolved researches in the field of infant oral healthcare.

Swanson tells that the soft tissues in the baby’s mouth act like a container for these bacteria to reside in, even right before the tooth eruption process. Therefore, the cavity formation process actually starts way before the teeth are even visible, because these bacteria are already there when the first tooth erupts.

As a parent, it is extremely important to learn about proper dietary habits and proper oral hygiene practices for infants. This way, cavity formation will be avoided later on after the teeth erupt.