Parents’ perception about tooth eruption signs and symptoms in babies

Abstract

Dental eruption is defined as the movement of developing teeth to emerge through the soft tissues of the maxilla and mandible. The first deciduous tooth usually erupts into the oral cavity between the fourth and tenth month of age. During this time, local and systemic manifestations are observed and reported by parents of babies who undergo the process. Thus, this stud seeks to review and analyze the literature regarding the perception of parents about the signs and symptoms observed during the process of tooth eruption in babies. An integrative literature review was performed, searching for articles indexed in PubMed and Portal BVS electronic databases. Sixteen papers were selected, mostly of which were cross-sectional studies (n: 11). Only two studies were carried out in Brazil, with India (n: 4) being the country with the highest number of articles included. The most reported signs and symptoms were fever (n: 16), loss of appetite (n: 13) and increased salivation (n: 12). The analyzed studies had limitations, such as the lack of standardization of the questionnaires addressed to parents. We conclude more studies with varied populations, larger samples and standardized questionnaires are needed.

Keywords: Deciduous tooth. Signals and symptons. Tooth eruption.