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From Trisha's Desk Trisha E. O'Hehir, RDH, BS, Editorial Director, Hygienetown Magazine

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Thanks Mom!

Trisha E. O'Hehir,
RDH, BS
Editorial Director,
Hygienetown Magazine 		My mom was a good mom; she loved me, held and soothed me, played with me, sang songs to me, fed and clothed me. Unknowingly, she also shared her oral pathogens with me and my six siblings. And back in those days, a visit to the dentist wasn't to find out "if," but "how many" cavities you had.

I remember being seven years old and crying uncontrollably in my mother's arms because I had advanced tooth decay in all my deciduous molars. A scary trip to the dentist proved to be the antithesis of the relief I'd been promised. After examining my teeth, the dentist announced to my mother that the cavities were in baby teeth that didn't need to be repaired. He thought he was giving us good news, but the pain remained. My mother asked him to pull the teeth because they hurt so much.
To this request, the dentist simply shrugged off the idea saying that these teeth didn't need to be pulled as they would fall out by themselves. Still not satisfied, my mother asked what she should do about the terrible pain I was experiencing. "That's simple," the dentist said. "Just have her chew Aspirgum!" And so for the next several weeks I continued to have tooth aches, continued to cry, but was given Aspirgum whenever I requested it. If only we knew then that the Aspirgum contained sugar that actually fed the bacteria causing the problems!

It wasn't until many years and many fillings later that I learned my tooth decay actually began when my mother shared her bacteria with me through kissing, tasting the food before she gave it to me and generally doing motherly things. Tooth decay is a bacterial infection and the bacteria are transmitted from mother to child in saliva; this is called "vertical transmission." This bacteria transmission is inevitable. After all, it is natural for mothers to "spit" on their children! It happens all the time. I've seen moms at the airport pick dropped pacifiers up from the floor and put them in their mouths to clean them off before giving them back to their babies. Just realize it's going to happen and that it's your job to make sure your patients who are mothers have good oral health before they give birth so they don't share the bad bacteria with their beautiful new babies!
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