Bad Things Happen When Spit Hits the Fam’: Delta Dental cautions parents about passing decay-causing bacteria to their children

OAK BROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Most Americans don’t know that they can actually pass harmful bacteria from their mouth to their child’s mouth, which can put the child at an increased risk for cavities.

“Babies are actually born without any harmful bacteria in their mouths. But once bacteria colonize in the mouth, your child will be more prone to cavities in baby and permanent teeth”

In fact, less than a third of American caregivers (32 percent) realize that they can pass dental disease on to their baby. That’s one of the key findings from a survey¹ of American children’s oral health, conducted on behalf of Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA), the nation’s leading dental benefits provider.

The bacteria in your mouth that cause tooth decay can be transferred from person to person. Bacteria are passed when items contaminated with your saliva go into your child's mouth. Typically, this takes place through natural, parental behaviors such as sharing eating utensils or cleaning off your baby’s pacifier with your mouth. Research shows that moms – more often than dads or others – usually inadvertently infect their children.²

Caregiver behavior reflects their lack of knowledge about passing on dental disease. Nearly two out of five (37 percent) Americans say they sometimes or often share utensils with their children (especially those with children ages 2 to 3).

“Babies are actually born without any harmful bacteria in their mouths. But once bacteria colonize in the mouth, your child will be more prone to cavities in baby and permanent teeth,” said Dr. William Kohn, DDS, vice president of dental science and policy for DDPA. “If you have a history of poor oral health with frequent cavities, you're particularly likely to pass the germs along.”

Delta Dental offers these tips to help caregivers protect their children’s teeth:

• Make sure to keep your own mouth healthy. It’s never too late to begin good oral health habits. Maintain a good diet, brush your teeth at least twice a day, floss at least once a day, visit the dentist regularly and have any cavities in your own teeth repaired.

• Try to cut back on or eliminate saliva-transferring behaviors such as sharing utensils and toothbrushes and cleaning off your baby’s pacifier with your own mouth.
• Moms and those expecting who already chew gum should use products sweetened primarily with xylitol. A recent study found that children of moms who chewed xylitol gum (starting in the sixth month of pregnancy) were significantly less likely to have decay-causing bacteria in their saliva.³

If you follow these tips, you can ensure that you will be passing along good oral health habits – not harmful bacteria – to your children.

To see a video on this topic, please click here.

About Delta Dental Plans Association

The not-for-profit Delta Dental Plans Association (DDPA), based in Oak Brook, Ill., is the leading national network of independent dental service corporations specializing in providing dental benefits programs to more than 56 million Americans in more than 95,000 employee groups throughout the country. For more news and information about DDPA, please visit at www.deltadental.com and follow us on Twitter (@DeltaDental).

¹ Morpace Inc. conducted the 2011 Delta Dental Children’s Oral Health Survey. Interviews were conducted by email nationally with 907 primary caregivers of children from birth to age 11. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of error is ±3.25 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

² Australian Dental Journal, Factors influencing oral colonization of mutans streptococci in young children, 2007.

³ Journal of Dental Research, Xylitol Gum and Maternal Transmission of Mutans Streptococci, January 2010.