Oral hygiene for babies.

Oral hygiene for babies should begin even before their first teeth appear. Although some experts recommend that parents start this care when the first tooth erupts, there are benefits to introducing this practice before the first teeth appear.

Furthermore, this daily routine helps the child get used to the feeling of a clean mouth and the manipulation of the oral cavity, establishing a habit that should be maintained throughout life.

The practice of cleaning babies' oral cavities using gum massage establishes a daily habit of oral health care for both the baby and the parents.

The controversy: before or after the first teeth?

To begin the discussion, and frankly speaking, there are differing opinions on when to start oral hygiene in babies. Although oral hygiene is fundamental to children's oral health, much of the literature does not address oral cleaning before the appearance of the first teeth.

Consequently, recommendations from professional dental and pediatric organizations regarding the initiation of oral hygiene in infants vary. Some pediatric and pediatric dentistry entities advise starting oral hygiene after the appearance of the first deciduous tooth, arguing that before that, the absence of teeth does not allow colonization by cariogenic bacteria.

Levels of Streptococcus mutans in the baby's oral cavity are high in the first months of life. However, tooth decay only develops when these and other cariogenic microorganisms colonize the teeth. Therefore, we believe that, due to the lack of teeth and the shedding properties of the oral mucosa, cariogenic microorganisms, such as Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacilli, are unable to colonize the oral cavity before the eruption of teeth.

Oral hygiene for babies: Candidiasis infections

However, the existence of Candida albicans This ultimately lends some relevance to the subject. C. albicans Candida albicans is one of the most common types of fungi found on human mucous membranes. It is opportunistic and is considered a threat when conditions are favorable for its growth. Overgrowth of Candida in the mouth can result in candidiasis, which is an infection of the mucous membranes. Furthermore, a recent review indicated that children with Candida albicans are five times more likely to develop early childhood caries, especially when exposed to a diet high in sugar.

Between 2020 and 2021, Dr. Ana Beatriz Silva Lopes conducted research and presented information on the relationship between candidiasis and oral hygiene in infants before the eruption of their first teeth. The report shows that almost half of the children evaluated (49.1%) had Candida, a type of fungus, in their mouths. However, we found no significant difference between the group of children whose parents practiced oral hygiene in the first months of life and the control group. This indicates that oral cleaning before teeth erupted did not influence Candida colonization (p=0.947).

On the other hand, we observed that pacifier use (p=0.036) and the occurrence of any illness in children during the first month of life (p=0.003) were related to the presence of Candida in the mouth. Approximately 13.21% of the participants presented with oral candidiasis in the first month of life. Of these, 15.41% were in the control group (i.e., the group that was not performing oral hygiene) and 11.11% were in the group that performed oral hygiene. However, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.704).