Herbs For Oral And Dental Diseases Treatment

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Mothers will soon be able to sleep with both eyes closed while their babies are teething as dental experts at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) are investigating some herbs and chewing sticks for possible use in the treatment of oral and dental diseases.

Head of Department of Child Dental Health, LUTH, Prof. Elizabeth Obalowu Sote who is also the first Female professour in Dental Health in Nigeria who disclosed this in a chat with newsmen in Lagos during a one day Awareness Campaign on Oral health organised by the hospital to mark the 2008 Children’s Day in Lagos also dismissed conceptions that teething is responsible for diarrhoea, cough and fever associated with it.

According to Sote, the investigation which is still on going is to find between these herbs and chewing sticks, which one is suitable in oral and dental health.

Her words, “We do not recommend herbal preparation that we do not know the content. But we are working on a number of herbs, chewing sticks that are beneficial in dental and oral health. That is the area of interest to see which one and which works.”

Sote who dismissed the belief by most mothers that teething causes diarrhoeal and cough said it is only a coincidence, blaming the real cause on poor hygiene, physiological disturbances and low immunity”

She said further noted that when teeth are erupting there is bound to be physiological symptoms like little fever but “teething is not the cause of diarrhoea or cough. The occurrence of high fever, cough and diarrhoea during teething is coincidental in many instances.

Explaining more, she said “I will tell you why they tend to coincide. When a baby is born the immune status of the baby is what the baby has acquired from the mother. After a while, the baby starts to develop its own antibody. At the age of six months when the teeth start to erupt the antibodies that babies acquired from the mother is wearing off. The one that is form is not yet fully formed. So their immune status is at the low level at that time.”

Sote also noted that because of the irritations and physiological mechanisms babies tend to put anything in their mouth and the hygienic condition of some of those things are very important, which could easily lead to infections such as diarrhea amongst others.

In his view, the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Akin Oshibogun who lamented the poor awareness on dental health in Nigeria however advised parents to take the issue of their children’s oral health seriously as most of the problems manifest early in childhood.

Oshibugun who disclosed that LUTH’s dental department was the first in the whole country explained that some medical condition that manifest in adulthood are as a result of untreated and undetected oral health problems.

“The mouth is the gateway to the body. Children are the hope of the future. If you leave a dental abscess or not properly treated, the infection could spread to other parts of the body and may worsen the over all health a person.

Many condition manifests early in child hood, if detected early, complications later in life would be prevented.” He explained that the awareness programme was to sensitive children to maintain good oral and dental health.

By Chioma Obinna