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Teething associated with rise in temperature, typically not fever

There are signs and symptoms during primary tooth eruption, with gingival irritation, irritability and drooling being the most common, according to data published in Pediatrics. In addition, while a rise in body temperature was also linked with teething, it was not labeled a fever.

“Despite being a natural process of child development, the impacts of primary tooth eruption on the overall health of children are still controversial,” Carla Massignan, DDS, of the department of dentistry at the Federal University of Santa Clara, Florianopolis, Brazil, and colleagues wrote. “ … Moreover, the eruption of primary teeth has been assumed among parents to be associated with behavioral and systemic changes. … Likewise, many health professionals also believe that there is an association between some signs and symptoms and the eruption of primary teeth. … The use of this diagnostic label may lead to either parents not managing a likely illness or the doctors to ignore significant symptoms and fail in diagnosis.”

To analyze the prevalence of signs and symptoms associated with teething, the researchers reviewed published data from 16 observational studies from eight countries, including Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, India, Israel, Senegal and the United States, assessing the local and systemic effects of primary teeth eruption. The selected studies had sample sizes ranging from 16 to 1,165 children aged 0 to 36 months.

Two researchers conducted independent reviews of the studies, with extracted information crosschecked and confirmed for accuracy. Data sources included Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus and Web of Science. The researchers also used Google Scholar.

According to the researchers, the overall prevalence of various signs and symptoms related to teething was 70.5%, out of a total sample of 3,506. The most frequent were gingival irritation, with 86.81%; irritability, with 68.19%; and drooling, with 55.72%. A slight rise in body temperature was another common symptom, but was most often not enough to be considered a fever.

“Based on the current limited evidence, there are signs and symptoms during primary tooth eruption,” Massignan and colleagues wrote. “Gingival irritation, irritability and drooling were the most common. For body temperature analyses, it was possible to evaluate that eruption of primary teeth is associated with a rise in temperature, but it was not characterized as fever.” – by Jason Laday

Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.