The mothers experience of their infants teething at three different settings in Uganda and South Africa

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Date

2004

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of the Western Cape

Abstract

Teething, a common subject of discussion among nursing mothers has been held responsible for a variety of childhood ailments by both health professionals and parents. It appears to be a social construct coined by society to express the experience the child goes through during early days of childhood. Teething to the dental profession is the biological expression of tooth movement, in a predominantly axial direction, from the tooth's developmental position within the jaws to its emergence in the oral cavity. Several studies have reported both health professionals and parents to attribute local and systematic disturbances to the eruption of the primary dentition. The mothers experience and understanding of teeting have not been reported on. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the mothers experience of their child's teething. The objectives of the study were to determine what mothers understood by the term teething; to establish the signs and symptoms mothers associate with teething; to ascertain the treatment sought by mothers for their child's teething; to investigate how mothers in different setting understand and respond to teething.

Description

Magister Scientiae Dentium - MSc(Dent)

Keywords

Deciduous teeth, Eruption, Pediatric periodontics

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