All mothers know that they need to brush their baby’s milk teeth
when they start to come through at the age of around six months
old. But now scientists are urging parents to start caring for
their gums much earlier, after finding hundreds of species of
bacteria in the mouths of infants. The study from the University
of Illinois focused on babies who didn’t yet have any teeth,
compared to most studies that looked at older children who
already had dental cavities. The team, led by Professor Kelly
Swanson, used DNA technology to examine the whole population of
bacteria in their mouths. They found it was far more diverse
that suspected, making cavities more likely. ‘Like many other
diseases, dental cavities are a result of many bacteria in a
community, not just one pathogen,’ Prof Swanson said. He added:
‘We now recognize that the ‘window of infectivity,’ which was
thought to occur between 19 and 33 months of age years ago,
really occurs at a much younger age.’ The American Academy of
Pediatric Dentistry recomme