Tooth eruption symptoms: a survey of parents and health professionals.

Unlabelled: It is commonly believed that teething in infants can cause a variety of signs and symptoms. Previous studies have suggested an association between teething and fever, irritability, drooling, rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, night crying, and convulsions.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in the beliefs of pediatricians, pediatric dentists and parents regarding symptoms caused by teething in infants.

Methods: A survey consisting of demographic information and questions concerning commonly reported symptoms associated with teething was administered to 100 randomly selected Iowa pediatricians, all practicing pediatric dentists in Iowa (n = 33) and a convenience sample of 120 parents from the greater Iowa City area. Responses were analyzed using the Chi-square test.

Results: Response rates for each group were: pediatricians 45%; pediatric dentists 76%; and parents 50%. The majority of individuals in each group believed that teething in infants can cause swollen gums, drooling, irritability, inflamed gums, restlessness, sleeplessness, and fever. There were significant differences in the percent of agreement relating to drooling (p = 0.001), inflamed gums (p = 0.001), and sleeplessness (p = 0.027). A greater percentage of pediatric dentists and parents agreed that these symptoms were caused by teething than did pediatricians. The largest difference between groups was related to the association between teething and diarrhea. The majority of parents (56.7%) and pediatric dentists (52.0%) believed that diarrhea is associated with teething compared to just 9.1% of pediatricians.

Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that differences regarding beliefs about teething symptoms exist between parents, pediatricians, and pediatric dentists. There is more agreement between parents and pediatric dentists than between either of these groups and pediatricians.