Systemic manifestations during eruption of primary teeth in infants.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the most frequent objective clinical manifestations found during the eruption of primary teeth and to assess the correlation between those symptoms and the eruption of various groups of teeth.

METHODS

The study was conducted in the Clinica Infantil Colsubsidio in Bogota, Colombia. Five hundred and eighty-five children participated in the study. One-hundred and forty-five children ages 4 to 36 months who had at least 1 erupting tooth were included in the study group. The other 357 children served as a control group. Parents were asked to complete a short questionnaire and children were then checked by one of the authors. Chi-square analysis was performed to analyze information obtained for the 2 groups. Level of significance was set at P < .05.

RESULTS

There were 81 girls (56%) and 64 boys (44%) in the study group, and 183 girls (54%) and 157 boys (46%) in the control group. The most frequent clinical manifestations were: drooling (15%), diarrhea (13%) and drooling-diarrhea (8%). The presence of fever and fever-diarrhea was shown in a lower percentage (8%). In the study group, boys demonstrated a higher prevalence of diarrhea than girls (P < .05). No statistical significance regarding other clinical manifestations and gender were observed. In the control group, 93% of the children did not show any clinical manifestation.

CONCLUSIONS

An association has been shown between general objective manifestations like drooling (the most prevalent), fever and diarrhea, and the eruption of primary teeth. Most manifestations appeared during the eruption of the primary incisors.